Octopus Eclipse Power Down: how to check your result and account credit
By Matt · Published 11 August 2026 · Updated 17 August 2026
Octopus ran a one-off Eclipse Power Down from 18:00 to 20:00 on Wednesday 12 August. Successful participants were assigned one free electricity hour between 11:00 and 15:00 on Sunday 16 August. Those account-specific slots have now passed, so another customer's time is not useful evidence for your result or credit.
Octopus's event FAQ and its specific event terms still conflict on missing meter readings, export and whether the Power Down earned Octopoints. Keep the email, app message and half-hourly data for your own account. If they disagree with the result or later credit, ask Octopus to explain which rule and meter periods it used.
What to check now
- Open the Saving Sessions dashboard and look for both the Wednesday Power Down result and Sunday Power Hour usage.
- Keep the qualification email or app message showing the one-hour slot assigned to your account.
- Record the two half-hourly import periods inside that slot and the tariff rate applied to each period.
- Check the later account credit against those periods, allowing for the 16kWh cap.
- If the result, readings or credit do not line up, send Octopus the slot message, meter data and statement dates together.
The live event page says dashboard results will be available sometime in the week beginning 17 August. It also says the credit should arrive within two weeks of 16 August, while the specific terms allow up to 14 business days. That means a missing credit on 17 August is not yet evidence of a billing failure.
How qualification was decided
The event was for customers enrolled in Octoplus and Saving Sessions who paid by Direct Debit or smart prepay, had a working smart meter sharing regular half-hourly readings and opted in before the deadline. A reduction below the calculated baseline in at least one half-hour between 18:00 and 20:00 was enough to qualify.
The FAQ says Octopus will assume a customer qualified if Wednesday's readings are missing and may use an average Sunday credit if readings are missing again. The event terms instead say Octopus may withhold eligibility when Power Down data is missing or unreadable. If missing data changes your result, ask Octopus to confirm the calculation rather than assuming either version automatically applies.
How the free-hour credit should appear
The electricity was billed normally first. Octopus says it will credit back eligible import from the assigned hour, using the import tariff rate active in each half-hour, up to 16kWh. Gas and normal standing charges were not part of the free-hour reward.
For an Intelligent Octopus Go customer, one half-hour could have been billed at a smart-charging rate and another at the normal rate. A manual Boost could also change the billed rate. The useful check is not a generic estimate of what an hour should be worth. Match each credited half-hour to the rate and imported kWh shown for the account.
Solar, battery and export checks
Solar and battery homes should separate import, stored energy and export when checking the result. A battery may have reduced grid import during the assigned hour, while rooftop solar may have supplied part of the home directly. That can make the import credit smaller without proving the calculation is wrong.
The specific event terms say exported electricity was not measured, credited or altered by this session and that normal export tariffs remained separate. The event FAQ gives an extra-export Octopoints example, so the public sources remain inconsistent. Do not add an Eclipse export reward to your expected credit unless Octopus confirms it for your account.
- compare import readings for the exact assigned half-hours
- check whether the battery charged, discharged or stayed idle
- keep inverter or charger data as supporting evidence, not the final billing record
- compare any normal export payment separately from the Eclipse account credit
The photo competition has closed
Octopus also ran a separate photo competition. Entries closed at 17:00 on Thursday 13 August. The photos and competition did not decide qualification for the electricity reward.
If the credit still looks wrong
Wait for the published credit window before treating a missing entry as overdue. After that, send Octopus one concise evidence pack: qualification message, assigned slot, Wednesday result, Sunday half-hourly imports, tariff rates and the relevant statement or account-credit screen. Ask for the baseline and credit calculation if the answer is unclear.
The wider Octopus flexibility guide explains how Power down and Power up sessions fit into the electricity system. This eclipse event was a time-limited version with its own opt-in and reward rules.