Submitted by Bill Fernie
5th October 2026
There is something slightly odd about the way we are increasingly being encouraged to use electricity at different times.
Octopus Energy, for example, has its Octoplus rewards scheme, under which customers can earn Octopoints for changing their electricity use. The idea is perfectly sensible. If the electricity system is under pressure, use less. If there is a surplus of electricity available, use more.
But I keep wondering whether we are making something very simple unnecessarily complicated.
Why give people points when we could simply give them a cheaper electricity price?
Octopus says 800 Octopoints are worth £1. That means the rewards for changing your electricity consumption can look rather impressive in the app but turn out to be worth relatively little in actual money. Octopus says Saving Sessions typically earn around 1,000 points, which is only about £1.25.
For some people that will be worthwhile. But for others it may hardly be enough to persuade them to alter their daily routine.
Why not just change the price?
Suppose electricity normally cost around 26p per kWh but the price fell substantially on a Sunday, or between certain late-night hours.
The message would be remarkably simple.
Electricity is cheaper now. Use it if you can.
There would be no points to collect, no conversion rate to remember and no need to wait for a reward to appear on an app.
The saving would appear directly on the electricity bill.
This isn't a new idea. Economy 7 already works on the principle of different electricity prices at different times, while Ofgem has been examining more sophisticated time-of-use tariffs for many years. Ofgem describes static time-of-use tariffs as having different prices at fixed times, while dynamic tariffs can change according to the time of day and even from one day to another.
The difference is that smart meters now make this much easier to operate.
Sunday could become Britain's cheap electricity day
Imagine a tariff where electricity was deliberately cheaper for much of Sunday.
A household could then decide when to do the washing, run the dishwasher, heat water or carry out other electricity-intensive jobs.
It wouldn't mean everybody had to change their behaviour.
If Sunday wasn't convenient, you simply wouldn't use the cheaper period.
But if you could move some of your consumption, you would save money.
The same principle could apply to late-night electricity.
Someone with an electric vehicle could charge overnight. Someone with an immersion heater could heat water during a cheaper period. A household with a washing machine or dishwasher could run it later in the evening.
The customer gets a straightforward financial reward because the electricity itself is cheaper.
And there is a benefit for the electricity system
This isn't simply about finding ways to cut household bills.
Britain is increasingly dependent on renewable electricity, particularly wind power. The amount of electricity being generated can vary considerably depending on the weather.
At times there can be plenty of electricity available. At other times demand can be high while renewable generation is lower.
Getting consumers to move some of their demand towards periods when electricity is plentiful could make better use of the system.
Ofgem has previously pointed out that smart meters can allow consumers to pay less when electricity is cheaper to produce or outside peak periods. Its research has also recognised that time-of-use tariffs are intended to manage demand while potentially reducing customers' bills.
That seems much more powerful than handing out points.
But there is an important catch
A complicated time-of-use tariff could actually make life worse for some households.
A family with young children, someone working night shifts or somebody who has little ability to change when they use electricity might have limited flexibility.
There is also a danger that a tariff with very cheap electricity at certain times could have correspondingly expensive electricity at others.
That is why any move towards time-based pricing would need to be transparent and easy to understand.
The customer should be able to look at the tariff and know:
Cheap electricity: these hours.
Normal electricity: these hours.
Expensive electricity: these hours.
No financial degree required.
Perhaps the future is simpler than Octoplus
There is nothing wrong with Octopus experimenting with rewards. It is an interesting way of getting people to think about when they use electricity.
But I wonder whether it is ultimately a stepping stone towards something much simpler.
Instead of telling people:
"Use less electricity between 5pm and 6pm and we will give you some points."
why not say:
"Electricity costs 35p between 5pm and 6pm but only 15p between 10pm and 6am."
The incentive is then immediate and understandable.
And unlike points, a lower electricity price is something everybody understands.
Britain already has the technology
The technology isn't really the problem.
Smart meters can record electricity consumption in half-hourly periods. Ofgem has been working for years on the regulatory arrangements needed to make greater use of time-of-use tariffs, and its latest market reporting shows that smart time-of-use tariff adoption is increasing.
The question is therefore becoming less about whether we can do it and more about how simple and fair we can make it.
Perhaps Sunday should become Britain's cheap electricity day.
Perhaps late-night electricity should be considerably cheaper.
Perhaps there should be cheaper rates whenever the country has more electricity than it immediately needs.
And perhaps, instead of giving us a handful of points for helping the system, energy companies should simply pass some of that saving directly on to us.
That would provide a much more powerful incentive.
After all, if you want people to change their behaviour, money usually speaks rather more clearly than points.