Saving Sessions FAQs

We sent all eligible Octoplus members an email between the 28th and 30th November 2024 with a sign up link to Saving Sessions.

If you didn't receive this and believe you’re eligible, you can login to your online account and you should see a banner at the top of the page with an option to opt in.

If you don’t have a working smart meter yet, read our FAQ about getting one below.

We’ll invite you to every session you’re able to join (this could arrive any time for 2-6 hours before the session). You’ll need to opt in via the email each time.

Heads up: there won’t be any app notifications in the meantime, but we’ll let you know if and when that changes.

With energy prices still higher than historic levels, it’s never been more important to help people save power and money. But Saving Sessions isn’t just a way of easing the impact of the energy crisis on your bills - it’s the start of a new era of energy: one where people genuinely benefit by actively participating in making energy smarter, greener and cheaper.

Currently, the UK often has to fire up extra fossil-fuel run power stations to satisfy everyone’s energy needs at the busiest times of day.

Rather than paying these (very expensive) fossil fuel generators to turn on, when demand is high, we want to reward people for switching off or delaying the energy they don’t need. Not only will this cut carbon emissions – it helps balance the energy system and allows us to make the most of green energy when the sun’s shining and the wind’s blowing.

Saving Sessions is just for electricity.

Yes! As long as your smart meter itself is working, you can join. Your smart meter is the unit attached to the wall, usually in a cupboard under the stairs.

The in-home display is different to your smart meter – it's the little screen that's usually plugged in and sits on a bench somewhere in the house showing your energy usage info.

You can join Saving Sessions even if your screen doesn't work, or you don't have one.

You’ll need a working electric smart meter so we can verify how much energy you’ve managed to save.

If you haven't got one, you can request one on our website.

We can generally install a smart meter in a few weeks (depending on engineer availability) but we can't absolutely guarantee it. Smart meters work great in most homes, but there are some areas where signal doesn't reach, and some types of homes where they'll have trouble connecting.

Saving Sessions sign-ups will be open throughout winter, so once your smart meter has been installed and we have received a couple of weeks of data, you should be eligible to take part.

Just request one on our website and we'll email you when we have appointments free.

We're installing around 40,000 smart meters a month, and can generally install one for you within a few weeks. But it depends on engineer availability, and a few other factors, so we can't absolutely guarantee when it'll happen.

Smart meters work great in most homes, but there are some areas where signal doesn't reach just yet, and some types of homes where smart meters can have trouble connecting.

Very occasionally, external issues like data outages or connection interruptions mean we might not be able to retrieve readings from your smart meter during a Session you opted into.

If that happens, we won’t know how much you saved. Instead, we'll credit you the average number of redeemable points that other customers received for that Session, based on the assumption you got involved and saved power.

If we stop getting regular meter readings from your smart meter, that might mean you're not eligible for Saving Sessions anymore (we need 80% of all half-hourly readings for the last 15 days for you to be eligible). You won't be able to opt in and earn money in Sessions anymore.

If you sign up to Saving Sessions and then part way through the winter your smart meter stops connecting, please get in touch with us and we'll do all we can to get it working again.

Though rare, some problems can be very tricky to fix – we're dependent on a whole host of third party government-mandated systems to make smart meters work, so sometimes it's outside of our control. We'll do our best to keep your meter connected but we can't guarantee it.

If we're no longer getting regular meter readings (meaning half-hourly readings every day for the last twenty days) we may contact you to let you know you're not eligible to take part anymore, and you won't be able to earn redeemable points in Saving Sessions.

Of course, getting involved in saving power will help you save money and will help us build towards a future greener system anyway.

We generally get 48 readings from a smart meter into our systems every day, one for every half hour of the day.

Occasionally, we won’t be able to get a meter reading for the specific time of the Saving Session. This doesn't mean we're not connected to your meter.

It generally happens if your meter setup has a brief outage at the exact time of the Saving Session. It could be either your actual meter unit losing power for a second, or a brief drop in something called WAN signal, which is the network your meter uses to connect. (Think about when the wifi drops out for a second, then you refresh and it’s totally fine.)

This is a pretty rare occurrence, but if it happens to your meter when we try to pull your Saving Session readings, we won’t know what you used. We’ll reward you the average earnings for that Session instead.We think that’s a pretty fair solution – it’s very possible you’ll earn more than you would’ve with real readings – and it shouldn’t happen regularly.

This year, we’re divvying out the Saving Sessions by region in a battle of the kilowatts. That means you may not be asked to join all of them, but when you are — it’s time to prove your power saving capabilities as part of your regional team!

When it’s time for a Saving Session in your region, we’ll give you as much notice as possible by email and soon on the Octopus app (you’ll see a banner on your Octoplus dashboard!).

1. If you want to take part in the session, click the ‘Opt in’ button in your email (app notifications coming soon).
2. During the session, you should try and avoid using anything energy intensive (for example, dishwasher, washing machine, electric heater, EV charging) – we’ll share some tips and tricks to help.
3. A week or so after the Session, we’ll let you know how much you saved and how many points you've earned. You can then choose to exchange them for credit in your online dashboard (app coming soon) and it’ll be credited to your account within 14 days.
4. There’s no need for you to submit meter readings – we’ll work out how much you’ve saved using smart meter data.

One of the changes the “National Energy System Operator” (NESO) has made this year is reducing the number of megawatts they want us to turn down for each session. In other words, they’re keen that we don’t have too many people trying to save power at the same time.

Now that Saving Sessions is so big (thanks to the thousands of you who love taking part each year) and we have a better idea of how to meet the demand, we’ve decided to approach things in a new way this year by calling on different regions as and when we need help. And, to spice things up, we’re making it into a competition: the Regional Rumble!

As part of this challenge, regions will go head to head in a battle to lower the kilowatts and the competition results will be based on the overall % turndown in each region. Keep an eye on our social media channels to see how your region is doing on the low-power leaderboard.

There will be 14 regions taking part, these are how they’re defined by the NESO. We’ll be running a competition to get each region to vote on a team name for their area too!

Region split:

East England

East Midlands

London

North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire

West Midlands

North East England

North West England

North Scotland

South and Central Scotland

South East England

Southern England

South Wales

South West England

Yorkshire

Saving Sessions is part of an initiative from the government owned “National Energy System Operator” (NESO): the Demand Flexibility Service. As part of the service, NESO gives us the funding to reward you for reducing power at certain times and helping to balance the grid.

They’ve arrived at the lower reward because that’s the sort of amount they pay a gas plant to turn on to cover the busiest time of day (it does vary - as would future Saving Sessions rewards). But it’s not a fair comparison – they pay the gas plants a lot of money “just in case”, as well as the per-usage costs. There’s no proposal to do the same for customers.

We’ll continue to push for better value for you and hope that things might improve for future sessions. But for the time being, the reward will be about 75-90% lower than in previous years. So it’s worth keeping this in mind if you do choose to take part.

The Sessions could take place at any time – the specific windows will be based on when the grid needs help, so we don't know exactly when they’ll be yet (in other words, we can't schedule them far in advance). Normally we will let you know around 6 hours before a session happens, this is because that’s when we hear about it from NESO!

We can say that the Sessions will usually take place during the busiest times of day, because that's when the grid generally needs more help balancing. The ‘peak’ time is usually between 4-7pm, so if you think you could manage to use a bit less power around then, Saving Sessions will likely benefit you.

It’s hard to say for sure — we think there will probably be lots more sessions than last year but the total number will largely depend on how much help the service operator needs and we will be calling on individual regions this time around.

This year, we will also be doing things regionally so you may not be invited to every session. This is to make sure we stick within the service operator’s new requirements, and we don’t have too many people saving power at the same time.

You don’t have to join any, if you don’t want to. But if you do want to take part, as long as your region is invited to the session, you can join as many as you like. There’s no pressure to join if it’s not convenient for you or if you don’t think it would be of value. (Remember, the reward is lower this year so it’s worth keeping that in mind).

If you decide not to take part, just don’t opt in when we email you about it. We won’t send any reminders or follow-ups about that Session but you’ll still get an invite to the next one.

Login to your online account (in your browser, not the app). Go to the Octoplus tab and scroll to the bottom, there is an opt out link there that you can tap and we will remove you within 2 weeks.

If you ask to opt out after participating in a session, but your reward has not been paid out yet, you may not receive that reward.

To earn points, you have to opt into a Session before it begins, so we know you’re planning to take part.

If you don’t opt in, you won’t earn any points, even if you do save power. You can always take part in future Sessions though.

You'll get an email invitation to opt in to every Saving Session in your region (as long as you haven’t unsubscribed from our comms). They'll be sent with as much notice as possible. You may also see a pop up banner in your Octopus dashboard and app which you can also use to opt in.

Download the app here and learn how to turn on notifications.

Within 10 days of the Session, you'll receive your results via email.

Yes, customers who generate and export electricity (via solar panels, for example) with Octopus can take part in Saving Sessions, and we’ll credit you for any extra exporting you do compared to your usual "net" consumption, i.e. your imported energy minus your exported energy

E.g. If there’s an event between 6-7pm and we calculate that you usually export 2kWh during that time and don't import anything, then if you export 5kWh during the Saving Session, we'd credit you for this extra 3kWh that you're giving back to the grid (5kWh - 2kWh).

Your export tariff won't be affected, only additional energy exported during the Session will be paid at the Saving Sessions incentive rate.

There's no need to get involved if you feel Saving Sessions isn’t right for you. But this is quite different to just saving energy all the time in everyday life – it’s about shifting your electricity-intensive activities to different times of day – like cooking dinner earlier than usual, or scheduling your dishwasher outside of the Session hours. Any reduction in your usual usage, however small, will result in you earning a bit of reward.

We have some useful tips that should give you an idea of the sort of thing you might want to do with Saving Sessions here.

But if it still doesn’t sound right for you, there’s no need to get involved!

You’re still welcome to sign up, but you just might not make quite as much of a reward if your peak usage is already really low.

It's fantastic to hear how much you're already involved in the world of smart energy with solar, an EV and a battery. Saving Sessions is all about opening many more people up to that world, where you can get rewarded for using energy flexibly.

That does mean that early adopters like you who already do all sorts of stuff like this won't benefit as much from this specific project. But we've for many years run different tariffs just to give people like you awesome benefits.

For EV drivers, there's Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go. For people who export, there's Outgoing Octopus, Octoplus Flux and Intelligent Octopus Flux.
(FYI: if you’re on export with us, we’ll measure the total reduction from your import and export MPAN).

We’re always comparing you to what you’d have normally used at the time of the Saving Session, so if you’re generally a low energy user around the time of the most recent session, it’ll be a bit harder for you to make bigger savings.

If your savings still don’t look quite enough based on what you’ve used in the past, it might be down to the way we have to calculate your energy saving.

First, we need to work out your ‘normal energy use’ at the time of each Saving Session - so we can then compare it to what you use during the Session to work out your saving. There’s a strict formula we have to follow set by NESO.

We first look at your meter readings from the same time as the Session over the past 10 weekdays (excluding any days with a Saving Session or bank holidays). We use those to find the average amount of electricity you typically use then.

Also, we've got an FAQ above about lower rewards this year that you can check out above - here's the gist. NESO funding the reward for reducing power at certain times, they’ve arrived at the lower reward because that’s the sort of amount they pay a gas plant to turn on to cover the busiest time of day (it does vary - as would future Saving Sessions rewards).

We’ll look at your historical smart meter data leading up to a Session, and calculate what you usually use at that time of day, on average.

If the Session is on a weekday, we’ll look at your half-hourly usage over the last 10 weekdays (excluding Saving Session days and bank holidays). If the Session is on a weekend, we’ll look at your half hourly usage over the last 4 weekend days.

We then use these half-hourly averages as a benchmark – so you’ll earn points for every kilowatt hour you save compared to that number during your Session.

You’re still welcome to sign up, but you might not make quite as much of a reward if your peak usage is already really low.

If you're already involved in the world of flexible energy with solar panels / an EV and a battery then it might be that early adopters like you who already do all sorts of stuff like this won't benefit as much from this specific project. Saving Sessions is all about opening many more people up to that world in an accessible way, where you can get rewarded for using energy flexibly.

For many years Octopus has led the way on launching innovative and highly competitive tariffs to give people like you awesome benefits. For EV drivers, there's Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go. For people who export, there's Outgoing Octopus, Octoplus Flux and Intelligent Octopus Flux.

(FYI: if you’re on export with us, we’ll measure the total reduction from your import and export MPAN).

We work out your savings based on your normal energy use for the past 10 weekdays (excluding holidays or previous saving session days).

Even if you switch off the exact same stuff during each Session, the benchmark will be a bit different every time depending on your recent energy habits — so you’ll see slightly different results.

The rate you’re paid can also change from Session to Session. We’ll always tell you what you stand to earn on your invite notification and on the website where you opt in.

NESO’s project rewards people for every kilowatt hour they save. The more you use normally, the more you can reduce and the more you stand to earn.

This isn’t something we can change — it’s the whole point of the project, helping the grid reduce megawatt hours of energy demand so they don’t have to find that same amount of generation from fossil fuels.

Beyond whatever you manage to earn, and our different bonuses and prizes, your efforts are part of something bigger.

Our Sessions are making a huge difference on the grid: sometimes saving as much power as all the homes in Leicester switching off. That’s all power the UK doesn’t have to generate, saving an enormous amount of fossil fuel emissions and making everyone’s energy a bit cheaper by reducing the need for the grid to burn gas last minute at a massive premium (balancing costs can be huge, sometimes tens of millions for a single day!)

It’s got to do with the fact that we measure each half an hour of the Saving Session separately.

Over an hour-long Session, let’s say you cut your energy usage in the first half hour, but then used so much energy in the second half hour that overall, you still ended up using more power than usual. In this case, you’d still earn Octopoints for the energy saved in the first half an hour, even if you didn't save overall.

You'll earn Octopoints per kilowatt hour for all the electricity you don't use compared to normal. We expect dozens of Saving Sessions this winter (but they’ll be split between regions), and they'll likely be between one and two hours long.

It's hard to say exactly how much you could earn overall, because it all depends on a lot of factors we can't totally predict: from how many Sessions there'll be to how long each one is to how much NESO will pay in each Session.

Plus, there are individual factors, like how many you choose to get involved in, and how much power you're able to save in each one.

A lot of the unknowns exist because this project is designed to help balance the energy grid, and we don't know exactly how much help it'll need this winter - as that depends on stuff like the weather, energy demand and supply issues (for example, particular generators not running.)

Octopoints are our way of rewarding Octopus Energy customers who have a working smart meter and an active direct debit. You'll be able to keep track of how many you have in your online account and app, and they can be redeemed for all sorts of different rewards - prizes, donations to our Octo Assist fund for customers in need, or credit on your Octopus account (in GBP).

Saving Sessions is entirely free to get involved, your tariff and energy payments won't change, and you can opt out any time.

The money customers can earn in this project is paid by NESO – it’s a reward for helping to keep the energy grid in balance by switching off at the busiest times. Which makes sense: when energy demand is high, it’s much cheaper to pay people to use a bit less power than it is to pay fossil fuel generators to switch on at short notice. This year, NESO have reduced their payment levels by between 75-90%, we’ve been fighting for better value for our customers behind the scenes, and will continue to do so.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is responsible for the UK’s electricity and gas system planning. It took over from the National Grid as the Energy System Operator (ESO) in October 2024, established in the 2023 Energy Act.

This is all about reducing the cost of energy at peak times by balancing the grid and lowering the UK’s dependency on gas (which is used to generate electricity during times of peak demand).

It’s a chance for you to lower your bills when energy demand is high - and in time will make the system cheaper to run overall!

In previous years, this was the case, but we (and NESO) believe that energy flexibility is the future and so Saving Sessions will run all year round. Historically, the electrical grid comes under the most strain in winter, when people tend to use more energy so there’s likely to be more sessions during the cold weather.

Some of our customers are already contributing to (and financially benefiting from) other exciting grid balancing trials and projects. If there's a clash between Saving Sessions and any particular projects in the future, it might mean we need to withdraw you from Saving Sessions.

For this reason, customers who take part in Saving Sessions cannot join other similar projects run by other energy suppliers.

Customers signed up to any of our Smart Tariffs are absolutely able to sign up and take part, and if anything ever does change, we'll of course contact you about it.

Not sure? Check what type of meter you have in the meter section on your dashboard (it should say ‘Smart’ next to meter type).

If you don’t have one yet, you can request a smart meter now.

Generally, we can book you an appointment within a few weeks, but this depends on engineer availability and other factors so there are no guarantees.

Though we can install smart meters in most homes, there are some areas and types of buildings where they can’t work just yet, and some cases when we can’t install one.

We need half hourly readings to measure your savings – you can opt in to half-hourly readings on your dashboard by clicking ‘Review my smart meter data preferences’.

After that, we'll need to take half-hourly readings from your meter for 15 days to build up a picture of your typical energy use. Then you should be eligible to join Saving Sessions.

Check under Explore my energy use on your dashboard. If there aren’t any recent readings there, it suggests your smart meter’s not connected to us.

We'll do our best to get your meter connected but we can't guarantee it.

Though rare, some problems can be very tricky to fix – plus, smart meters are dependent on a whole host of third party government-mandated systems which we don't have control over.

We need to have received 80% of your half hourly readings in the past 15 days. Check the graph on Explore my energy use – if there are gaps in your readings, it might mean your smart meter connection is patchy, and not’ve quite hit that 80% requirement.

We need your historical smart meter data so that we can calculate what you usually use, and then work out how much you've saved compared to usual during the Session.

Our checks refresh every day so if your smart meter starts sending readings regularly enough, you’ll be able to sign up for Saving Sessions as normal.

If your meters connection is consistently a patchy, we can try and fix it, but there are no absolute guarantees.

Though rare, some problems can be very tricky to fix – plus, smart meters are dependent on a whole host of third party government-mandated systems which we don't have control over.