Common questions about Saving Sessions

We’ll be emailing everybody who’s eligible (that's domestic customers and businesses) with sign-up information and the chance to opt in over the next week.

You can also register your interest on the Saving Sessions webpage, and we’ll let you know if you’re eligible to join in.

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

Any Octopus customer with a connected electricity smart meter can sign up.

When we say ‘connected’, we mean we need to be getting regular half-hourly readings from your meter – specifically, we need to have received 80% of readings in the last 20 days.

We need this reliable connection to your meter so we can see how much you save each Session, and measure that against what you’ve typically used in the past.

Register interest at octopus.energy/saving-sessions and if you’re not eligible, we’ll help you work out what might be going wrong, and show you how to request a smart meter if you don’t have one yet.

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.

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’ll be able to take part.

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 twenty 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 retrieve 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.

You’ll receive an email and app notification telling you the timings for the Session, and details on how much you’ll be rewarded per kWh saved.

1. If you want to take part in that Session, opt in via your dashboard before it starts.
2. During the Session, you should try and avoid using anything energy intensive (for example, dishwasher, washing machine) – we’ll share some tips and tricks to help.
3. A day or so after the Session, we’ll let you know how much you saved and how many points you've earned. If you choose to exchange them for cash, it’ll be credited to your account within 14 days.
4. There’s no need for you to submit any meter readings – we’ll work how much you’ve saved using smart meter data.

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).

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.

You can take part in as many or as few Sessions as you like (though we’d obviously encourage you to make the most of them!)

You never have to join a Saving Session if it’s not convenient for you. Any that you can’t join, just don’t opt in when we email you about it. We won’t send any reminders or follow-ups about that Session.

You can take part in as many or as few Sessions as you like. But if you want to earn points, you have to opt into a Session before it begins, so we know you’re planning to take part and use less electricity.

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!

1. You'll get an invitation to opt in to every Saving Session. They'll be sent with as much notice as possible – ideally the day before.
2. Shortly before the Session begins, you'll receive a reminder.
3. Within a few days of the Session, you'll receive your results.

All these notifications will come via email, and if you have the Octopus app, via push notification too. Here's how to download the app and make sure you've enabled notifications.

It’s hard to say for sure - the total number will depend on how much help the electrical grid needs.

There'll be at least 12 Saving Sessions this winter (but likely many more), and they'll be between one and four hours long.

Based on the grid’s performance in previous years, we’re expecting around 1 or 2 Sessions per week (so around 25 in total) lasting up to 4 hours each.

It’s likely that they’ll run more often in January, when the electrical grid is usually under most pressure.

Yes, customers who generate and export electricity (via solar panels, for example) can take part in Saving Sessions, but we’re only able to credit customers for their turn down from their import meter.

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, Intelligent Octopus and Tesla Energy Plan. For people who export, there's Outgoing Octopus.

(FYI: if you’re on export with us, we’ll only measure the reduction of your import MPAN, not your 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 then, 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 the National Grid.

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). We use those to find the average amount of electricity you typically use then.

One final step: we have to adjust for your energy use on the day of the Session. This adjustment is a check to make sure you actually used some power at other times that day. It works by weighting your ‘normal energy use’ figure based on your readings from earlier in the day. If you use energy as normal, your normal use figure should stay the same.

But if, say, you switch off every plug on the morning of the Session and don’t get back til after its finished, your readings for the day of the Session will be unusually low, bringing your normal energy use down.

So even though your energy use during the Session is much lower than what you used at that time in the past 10 days, it’s not really lower than the energy you used during the day.

This means that some people who prepare for their Saving Session by switching off hours in advance might end up earning slightly less during their Sessions. We can’t change how we calculate this (it’s a requirement to be part of the grid’s project!) But, we have asked National Grid to consider changing the in-day adjustment calculation so it doesn’t negatively impact the Savers that prepare further in advance.

What should you do to avoid this?

Try to avoid switching everything off hours ahead of time.

Couldn’t I just game the system by using much more power before the Session?

We can’t blame you for wondering! But the cost of using much more energy every day over Winter just so you can earn more during a few hours of Saving Sessions just wouldn’t add up favourably in the end.

We work out your saving based on your normal energy use for the past 10 weekdays (with an adjustment for what you use on the day.)

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, between £1 and £6 per kilowatt hour saved. We’ll always tell you what you stand to earn on your invite email and on the website where you opt in.

National Grid’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).

But if you’re already doing all you can to cut down your energy, we want to celebrate your efforts too. That’s why we offer different OctoPoint bonuses for other types of participation, like streaks, or sometimes, for being one of the top Savers by percentage (so no matter how much you reduce, it’s the proportion of your normal power that counts). Plus, we have spot prizes every Session, giving you the chance to win 400,000 OctoPoints or £500 just for opting in.

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!)

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). If the Session is on a weekend, we’ll look at your half hourly usage over the last 4 weekend days. These half hourly averages are then subject to an ‘In Day Adjustment’ which will make adjustments based on how much energy you’ve used on the day of the session.

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

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 won't be able to see your normal energy usage calculation before the Session because we calculate it, in part, based on data from the day of the Session.

We need data from right up until the Session begins in order to accurately apply an ‘In Day Adjustment.’ This is part of National Grid's requirements for us all being involved in their balancing trial.

You'll earn OctoPoints per kilowatt hour for all the electricity you don't use compared to normal. There'll be at least 12 Saving Sessions this winter (but likely many more), and they'll be between one and four 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 National Grid 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.)

If you managed to take part in all 12 Sessions and you saved 1 kilowatt hour on average per Session, we'd expect your OctoPoint rewards to be worth around £36. However, it's really likely there'll be many more than 12 Sessions. Based on previous years, we're expecting around 1 or 2 Sessions per week, so around 25 in total - if that happened, with a slightly higher average incentive, you could end up earning OctoPoint rewards worth around £100.

OctoPoints are our way of rewarding Octopus Energy customers. You'll be able to keep track of how many you have in your online account, 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).

We'll give you more info about OctoPoints once Saving Sessions kicks off.

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

You'll be able to choose how you want to redeem your OctoPoints online and see how much they're worth in GBP. One of the options will be to turn it into account credit – if you do that, we’ll add the credit to your energy account.

You’ll be given points for every unit of electricity you don’t use compared to what you normally use. You can exchange these points for a range of rewards, including cash. (We explain more about how we calculate the amount of energy you normally use in another FAQ on this page.)

The calculations will be done automatically by us – we’ll collect the smart meter data ourselves, calculate how much you saved, and then credit you what you earned.

Interestingly, this is measured half-hourly – so you get separate opportunities to earn in every half hour of each Session.

Here’s an example to explain what this means: say there’s a Saving Session from 6pm to 7pm. If you use less power than usual between 6pm and 6.30pm, and then use more power than usual between 6.30pm and 7pm, you might use more power than usual overall, but you'll still earn points for what you saved in the first half hour.

With energy prices sky high, 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 dirty coal and gas 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.

The money customers can earn in this project is paid by National Grid – 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 is all about reducing the cost of energy at peak times by balancing the grid and lowering the UK’s dependency on gas.

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!

This time round, yes. Historically, the electrical grid comes under the most strain in winter, when people tend to use more energy. But in the future, schemes similar to this one will allow customers to get rewarded for playing an active role in balancing the energy system whenever needed.

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 who are taking part in our Equinox heat pump trial won’t be able to join Saving Sessions either.

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 20 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 20 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.

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.