Earn $2 for every kWh of electricity you reduce with Savings Session
Introducing Octopus Saving Sessions: Get paid to use less this winter
We’ve launched Saving Sessions for winter where you get paid to use less electricity at times when there is extra high electricity demand. You can play a valuable role in reducing the cost of electricity and the use of fossil fuel generation in the system by shifting usage away from these times. Better yet, we’ll reward you for it.
It’s entirely optional to participate! We encourage you to have fun and tag us on Instagram and Facebook to show us how you are saving this winter.
How will Saving Sessions work?
When a period of extra high demand is forecasted we will announce a Saving Session event.
All customers who have opted into Saving Sessions will be notified ahead of the event time. Each event will last for one hour. Expect them to typically occur during the peak periods (7 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 9 pm, weekdays).
If you have opted into Saving Sessions, you will be notified of a scheduled event via email and mobile app notification and the time it will take place. We will reward you $2 for every kWh of reduced usage.
Sign up for saving sessions at the start of winter (you must have a communicating smart meter).
We work with the electricity industry and monitor for when power gets tight. We then respond by issuing saving session notifications and instructing any intelligent octopus connected devices to conserve energy.
If you have signed up for Saving Sessions, we'll send you both email and app notifications about up coming events. These will typically be sent the day before, but sometimes they may only be a few hours before.
After the session we'll look at your smart meter readings to work out how much you saved. This can take up to a week to receive your meter reads and process them.
FAQs
We'll tell you about each Saving Session with as much notice as possible (ideally the day before) via either app notification, or email if you don't have the app. Make sure you turn on app notifications so you don't miss out.
Firstly you must have a communicating smart meter. We’ll then 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.
We then use these half-hourly averages as a benchmark – so you’ll earn credit for every kilowatt hour you save compared to that number during your Session.
We will apply an event credit to your account the week after each event. If there is a delay in your metering data being received by us this may cause a delay.
We will run these events throughout June, July and August. We will announce them as needed but we expect to have 2-5 events per month. These will also take place when Transpower calls for a demand reduction because of a threat of a grid emergency.
No, it’s entirely optional. However we will let you know if an event coincides with a threat of a grid emergency, in this situation Transpower will be asking all consumers to be mindful of their usage in order to keep the lights on.
The Sessions could take place at any time – but they would typically take place during peak times. These are generally weekday mornings and evenings.
Yes! If you are net exporting electricity during a Saving Session, this will count towards your "reduction" and you will be credited the Saving Session rate (on top of your export rate).
For example, if you would normally consume 4 kWh during the Saving Session time window, but you actually net exported 2 kWh - this would count as a 6 kWh "reduction" which you would be credited for.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
Be the first one to know about news, product information and special offers.