The rules are the same as for a normal Saving Session. You have to: 

If you qualify for the free hour, we’ll pop up in your email on Sunday 16th August (we'll also let you know if you didn't manage to save enough power). We’ll also confirm what time the session is that day. 

Forget the telly, leave the dishwasher until later, and head out with your friends and family to enjoy the eclipse! FYI, you get no Octopoints for this session (just membership of our exclusive Sunday free power club) so don’t stress. You just have to use less power than normal, not cut every single watt you can. But if you want to maximise your green impact on the grid, we’ve got tips on how to save power during Sessions here.

The eclipse happens to fall at a very busy time for the grid in the UK (people tend to use lots of electricity in the evening as they cook dinner, boil the kettle and watch telly). Plus, solar power will, obviously, go offline when the sun does!

Currently, the UK has to fire up extra fossil-fuel run power stations to satisfy everyone’s energy needs at the busiest times of day, which is very expensive and causes lots of emissions. We’d like to raise awareness of the collective power of shifting our power usage during these busy times and reward people for doing so on such a momentous occasion. 

In an ordinary Saving Session, we reward Octoplus customers with Octopoints for using less energy when the grid is strained and soaking up more electricity when there’s an abundance of green electrons in the wires. In this special Eclipse edition, instead of offering Octopoints, we’re giving anyone who shifts power a completely free hour of electricity on Sunday 16th August.  

Yes! If you’re on Intelligent Octopus Go, avoid boost charging your car during the Power Down Session and try to cut down your normal household consumption (like everyone else, we recommend you unplug and head out to enjoy the night with your friends and family!). You just need to have used less electricity in at least one half hour of the 6-8pm window to earn the free hour of electricity on Sunday. 

To get the most out of that free hour, plug in your EV about 5-10 mins before the slot starts: this gives smart charging a chance to kick in. We’ll credit you back for any electricity you use during that time (up to 16kWh, which should be more than enough for the vast majority of customers!)   

Your credit will be based on the energy price that’s active at the time: so if you’re smart charging, it’ll be based on your cheap rate, if not, it’ll be based on your day rate.

Don’t worry. You can hit boost charge (or charge manually if you use a different charging app) to take advantage.

But if we do schedule a smart charge, please don’t also hit “boost” – there isn’t really a financial advantage to doing this – both options will look the same on your bill.

Here’s how it would work if you use 5 kWh:

It’s always better to smart charge if you can. Even though both are free during the hour, smart charging helps us keep things in balance. If loads of drivers hit “boost” at the same time, it can cause an unexpected spike in demand, and in turn, force networks to turn on gas generators to plug the gaps. Letting us handle it means we can keep things steady.

Yes! Customers who generate and export electricity (via solar panels, for example) with Octopus can take part in Power Down Saving Sessions, and we’ll reward you with 16 Octopoints per kWh for any extra exporting you do compared to your usual "net" consumption, i.e. your imported energy minus your exported energy.

E.g. So, if we calculate that you usually export 2kWh between 6-8pm and don't import anything, and you export 5kWh during the eclipse Session, we'd reward you for the extra 3kWh that you're giving back to the grid (5kWh - 2kWh).

You can also take part in Sunday’s power hour, but whether it’s worth doing so really depends on what your export prices are doing at the time. If your solar panels are covering your usage and you have some left over, you may be able to earn a tidy sum by exporting during that time, so there’d be no real benefit to participating in the session.

If there’s a glitch and we don’t get your smart meter readings after the session, we’ll assume you saved energy and opt you into the Sunday free session automatically. However, we’d advise caution during that hour because it’s reasonably likely that the same thing will happen again on Sunday.

If it does, we would credit you for the average amount of free electricity people used during the hour on Sunday. So we’d advise that you don’t try to use lots of extra power on Sunday just in case your smart meter malfunctions again and you get billed for more than we credit you. 

Yes, but most people are unlikely to hit it! It’s 16kWh, which is far more than any normal home could ever use (it’s enough to light up a local sports stadium!)

For this special Eclipse Power Down, the main reward is the free hour of power on Sunday 16th August which you'll get as long as you successfully use less power during at least half an hour of the session. 

You will also get a small Octopoints reward as well: 16 Octopoints per kwh you save during the session.