For Octopus customers · Available now
Octopus Saving Sessions battery planning
Plan your Octopus Saving Sessions battery use automatically. ShiftCharge saves charge for Power Downs and fills up when Power Ups make import free.
Start 30 days free30 days free during the beta, then £4.99 a month or £49 a year if you choose to subscribe.
No payment is taken automatically when your free time ends. Battery automation stops unless you subscribe. Paid plans renew until cancelled; cancel any time. Your first payment is covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee.
Octopus Saving Sessions reward you for changing when you use the grid. In a Power Down, Octopus pays Octopoints for each kWh you cut below your usual use. In a Power Up or a Weekend Happy Hour you’ve booked, the electricity you import is credited back, so it’s free.
A home battery is a good fit for both. ShiftCharge reads the sessions you’ve joined or booked and builds them into your daily plan: it saves battery for a Power Down when that pays, and charges from the grid during free hours if there’s room. Octopus pays your rewards as usual.
How it works
Turn on Saving Sessions in ShiftCharge under Settings, then Grid events. We check your Octopus account every 10 minutes, and as soon as a session you’re in appears, your plan is rebuilt around it.
For a Power Down, the reward is counted in the prices the plan sees. If saving battery for the session is worth more than using it earlier, the plan keeps it charged and runs your home from the battery while the session is on. With an export meter, it can also choose Discharge to grid, because Octopus counts exported energy too.
For a Power Up or a Weekend Happy Hour, import costs nothing, so the plan uses Charge from grid to top the battery up if there’s room. Either way your plan stays a plan: sessions change what each half hour is worth, and the planner decides what to do. If it would cost you more at peak than the session pays, it sits that one out.
Upcoming sessions show in the app. If you need the battery for something else, you can skip a session with one tap and the plan rebuilds without it.
What you need
An Octopus import tariff connected in ShiftCharge with your Octopus API key. Saving Sessions use the same key, so there’s nothing new to paste in.
To be signed up to Saving Sessions with Octopus, which you do once in the Octopus app or on the Octopus website. If you haven’t, ShiftCharge tells you in Settings.
A battery ShiftCharge already runs: Growatt, GivEnergy, Solis, Fox ESS or SolaX.
Joining sessions for you
Octopus only rewards a Power Down or Power Up if you join it before it starts, and notice is often only a few hours. If you tick Join Power Downs and Power Ups for me, ShiftCharge joins each open session in your region for you, at least 10 minutes before it starts. You can untick it at any time.
Leave it unticked and nothing changes on your Octopus account. We only plan around the sessions you join yourself.
Weekend Happy Hours
Weekend Happy Hours cost tokens you earn from Power Downs, so choosing them is your call. ShiftCharge never books them. Book them in the Octopus app as usual, and we’ll plan around the hours you’ve booked so the battery fills while import is free.
Common questions
- Does ShiftCharge join Saving Sessions for me?
- Only if you ask it to. Tick Join Power Downs and Power Ups for me in Settings and we join each open session in your region before it starts. Without the tick, we plan around the sessions you join yourself.
- Will it book Weekend Happy Hours?
- No. Happy Hours spend your tokens, so you book them in the Octopus app. Once you have, ShiftCharge sees the booking and plans to charge the battery during that hour if there’s room.
- Does it work if I’ve turned battery export off?
- Power Ups and Weekend Happy Hours still go into your plan. Power Downs don’t, because they can involve sending battery energy to the grid. Your normal plan already runs your home from the battery through the evening peak, which is when most Power Downs happen.
- Do I need to set anything new up?
- No. ShiftCharge uses the Octopus API key you already gave us for your tariff. If you change the key under your tariff settings, Saving Sessions pick it up too.
- Do Octopoints show in my ShiftCharge savings?
- No. Octopus pays rewards as Octopoints a few days after each session, and ShiftCharge doesn’t add them to your savings totals. Your savings figures only count what the plan saved on your tariff.
- Can I use this with Axle Energy too?
- Yes. You can turn on both in Settings, under Grid events. Each programme’s events go into the same plan.
Want this running in your home?
Connect your battery and your Octopus tariff, then turn on Saving Sessions in Settings, under Grid events. The sessions you join go straight into your plan.
Start 30 days free