Join the Big Dirty Turn Down trial

While recent times in energy have been tough, there’s still good news: the UK is slowly but surely getting greener and greener.

Renewable generation is set to triple by 2030. If we had that much renewable energy available today, it would be enough to power the country almost twice over at the most energy-intensive times!

This will be a massive milestone for decarbonisation. Octopus was founded to bring cheaper, greener energy to the world, so we want as many green electrons in the grid as possible. But there’s a challenge: what happens when the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine?

We’re trialling a solution to that fundamental challenge, and we need your help!

When the grid is struggling, dirty coal and diesel stations are fired up to satisfy the UK’s energy needs. Using the power of smart meters, we can demonstrate the massive potential of UK homes to collectively shift their energy usage, and prove those polluting options aren’t needed.

We’re working with National Grid ESO, the people who run the electricity network, to trial a big national ‘turndown’, where households come together to consciously use less energy at certain times – and get rewarded with free power for their efforts. While your own home might only be a small drop in the ocean, every ocean is made up of many drops; so put enough of them together and they soon add up.

How will the trial work?

There’ll be five to ten events where you’ll need to try and use less power, over February and March, for a period of two hours. If you’re able to reduce your energy use by a target amount - which we’ll let you know ahead of time - you’ll get all of the electricity used during that two hour period at no cost.

A few hours before each event, we’ll send you a notification via email, text, or through the Octopus app. This will include the trial window timing and your personal target for that period.

All you need to do is turn everything down a bit, and we’ll use the data from your smart meter to do the rest.

Terms & Conditions for The Demand Turn Down Trial

General

1. The trial will be run by Octopus Energy Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09263424 and registered office 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT (“Octopus Energy”, “we”, “us”).
2. These terms and conditions, together with any specific rules set out in any communications relating to the trial, are the trial rules (“Rules”) and apply to this trial. By entering this trial, you are agreeing to be bound by these Rules and any other applicable instructions.
3. Octopus Energy reserves the right to cancel or amend the trial and/or the Rules without prior notice. Any changes will be posted on our website.
4. In the event of any dispute regarding any aspect of the trial, the decision of Octopus Energy shall be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
   
   Trial Participation
5. There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this trial. Entrants must be 18 or over. Only residents of Great Britain are eligible to sign up to Octopus Energy and take part in the trial.
6. To be eligible for the trial, you must:
   1. be a current electricity customer of Octopus Energy and have been on supply as of 1st December 2021
   2. have a working smart meter which is sending us half-hourly readings
   3. opt-into the trial by completing the form in the event email
7. The trial period will start at 00:01 on Monday 16th May 2022 and will end at 23:59 on Friday 20th May 2022.
8. Each participant will have a personal target calculated for them by Octopus Energy, based on their last 4 weeks of consumption data collected from their smart meter (the “Personal Target”) before each event.
9. There will be between 2 and 3 events throughout the trial period. Prior to each event, we will send you a notification of the event window and your own Personal Target.
10. To achieve your Personal Target, you must reduce your energy consumption by your Personal Target during the event window. If you do, the remaining electricity you use during that window will be free. We will credit your account within two weeks of each event.
11. In the event that we’re unable to pull your meter readings to calculate your usage from any of the turn down windows, we’ll work it out using an average across all trial participants. If we are consistently unable to retrieve meter readings from your smart meter despite making all reasonable efforts to do so over the course of one working week, we reserve the right to remove you from the trial.
12. By entering the trial, you warrant that all information submitted by you is true, current and complete. If any information you submit is found to be fraudulent or incorrectly completed or if Octopus Energy has reasonable grounds to believe that you have breached any of the Rules, Octopus Energy reserves the right to disqualify you from the trial.
13. Octopus Energy will not be liable to reimburse any expenses incurred with entering the trial.
    
    Data Protection and Publicity
14. Octopus Energy’s privacy policy shall apply to any data collected in connection with this trial and can be found on our website at http://octopus.energy/privacy.
15. Octopus Energy in its sole discretion reserves the right to withdraw or vary the Rules and/or any offer made in connection with them in order to comply with the decision of any relevant judicial or regulatory body and shall not be held liable to any entrant for so doing.