Integrating CatchPower Savings

Overview

CatchPower is an Australian company specializing in Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) that help homeowners maximize the use of their self-generated solar energy.

Their technology focuses on smart load control, intelligently redirecting excess solar power (which would otherwise be exported to the grid at a low feed-in tariff) to on-site energy loads such as water heating, EV charging, or other household devices.

The core aim is to increase solar self-consumption, reduce grid dependency, and optimize energy savings for homeowners.

They have two main products:

1. CatchGreen - The ultimate solution for efficient hot water energy management.

It’s designed primarily for households with a resistive electric hot water system, and it works by:

• Monitoring real-time solar generation and household energy usage.
• Detecting when solar generation exceeds consumption (i.e., surplus power).
• Automatically diverting that excess solar to the hot water heater instead of exporting it to the grid.

Key benefits:

• Maximizes use of free solar energy for water heating.
• Reduces electricity bills by cutting grid energy use.
• Operates autonomously once configured.

Think of CatchGreen as a “solar diverter” dedicated to hot water, optimizing one major household load with minimal configuration.

2. CatchControl - This advanced energy management system designed for smart Consumer Energy Resources (CER) integration.

While it includes all the core functions of CatchGreen, it goes further by offering:

• Multi-load management: can control several household appliances (hot water systems, EV chargers, pool pumps, air conditioning, etc.).
• Tariff awareness: integrates with time-of-use or dynamic tariffs to optimize operation times for cost efficiency.
• Flexible scheduling: allows homeowners or installers to configure priorities and operating conditions for each load.
• Advanced monitoring and connectivity: may interface with cloud-based dashboards, smart meters, and energy management platforms for data insights and control.

In essence, CatchControl serves as a comprehensive smart energy hub, orchestrating when and how household devices draw power, using solar when available, switching to off-peak grid power when needed, and avoiding peak-rate periods.

In OpenSolar:

There are multiple scenarios in which we model savings from CatchPower in OpenSolar. It’s important to note that these integrations are only applied to Australian OpenSolar accounts: 

• Subscription/Catch Green CATCH setup

This can be done as covered in this HelpCentre Article.. Adding this product or subscription is visible in the ‘Your Solution’ section of the online proposal and the savings from each subscription plan can be seen in the box directly below.

• Combined CatchControl setup

Adding a CatchControl component will add the two subscriptions as part of the integration, both the plan optimizer and the true performance subscription. Now when accessing the proposal the CatchPower subscription integration can be seen in the ‘Your Solution’ section and the savings from each subscription plan can be seen in the box directly below.

Note: The savings from both of these scenarios will not be translated into the electricity bill savings seen in the online proposal