How do you claim the money earned from Octopus Energy Saving Sessions?

If you’re an Octopus Energy customer with a smart meter fitted, you may have been invited to take part in Saving Sessions. These earn you money if you use less energy than normal during the set times of the sessions. However, it’s not immediately obvious how you actually get hold of any funds you’ve earned. Here, then, is how to claim the money earned from Octopus Energy Saving Sessions.

What are Octopus Energy Saving Sessions?

The Saving Sessions are designed to alleviate pressure on the electricity grid. At peak times of demand, customers are incentivised to use less energy by being offered money for using less power than they normally would.

Some of the more hysterical media outlets – we’re looking at you BBC Politics Live – have characterised this as “switching the lights off to save money”. This is, frankly, cobblers, as unless you’re responsible for the floodlights at Wembley Stadium, switching your lights off won’t save that much energy anyway.

Instead, it’s designed to encourage people to postpone using high-energy devices, such as dishwashers, washing machines or electric ovens until the peak demand has passed. Charging electric cars is another example. Nobody wants you to sit in the dark.

You’re normally given at least 24 hours’ notice of a Saving Session and you have to opt-in. There’s no punishment or extra charges for not joining. But you can bank credit if you use less electricity than you typically use at that time of day.

Octopus Energy Saving Sessions have been part of a government pilot scheme that’s now being extended, so you may see more of them in future.

How to claim the money earned from Saving Sessions

You might not realise that the money earned from Octopus Energy Saving Sessions doesn’t automatically flow into your account. Instead, you have to claim the credit. Here’s how to do it.

First, log into the Octopus Energy website and then click on the Saving Sessions banner, which currently looks like this:

On that page, you’ll be given an indication of how much you’ve earned from any sessions to date:

If you scroll down the page, you should see a box like this, with a button to visit your OctoPoints page. Click on that:

Once you’re on the OctoPoints page, you should find an option to redeem for account credit, as below. (Mine is currently zero, because I redeemed before writing this article to check it worked):

Now, if you go to My Account and check your balance history, you should find the money’s been added to your account:

It’s not clear if Octopus Energy would ultimately transfer any money into your account anyway, but if you want to cash in on what you’ve earned so far, that’s the way to do it. You can also follow the above process from within the Octopus Energy apps.