Thousands of customers could save money on energy bills by changing when they use electricity

More than 25,000 customers have already signed up for the scheme, and 16,000 took part in an event which ran between 2pm and 4pm last Friday.

Some customers got more than £17 off their energy bill, Octopus Energy said.

The top five per cent recouped at least £4.80, according to The Sun.

Eligible customers will see the energy credits they accrue by taking part being applied directly to their bills.

The scheme is only open to customers who live in specific postcodes and it provides participants with free electricity when there is excess renewable energy on the grid.

Octopus Energy said: “Power-ups is only open to customers with connected smart meters in certain areas in South East & East England for now, because we're launching this cutting-edge project directly with the local network operator there, UK Power Networks.”

People can check if they live in the qualifying areas and meet the eligibility criteria via Octopus Energy’s website.

Alex Schoch, head of flexibility at Octopus Energy Group, said: "Thanks to Octopus’ proprietary technology rewarding ‘demand turn up’, we no longer need to switch off bountiful solar and wind power when consumers can use it up for free instead.

“It’s good for the grid and good for the planet - a win for everybody. ‘Power-ups’ is yet another arrow in the quiver of ‘demand flexibility’ and it’s great to work with an innovator like UK Power Networks.”

Last winter, Octopus Energy paid customers £5.4million to use less power at the busiest times via its Savings Sessions scheme.

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When demand is low, green generators can be forced to switch off, the supplier said, so is instead giving the energy "to people for free " via this new scheme.

The supplier said they would email Power-ups customers with "as much notice as possible" with this usually being the day before, and participants must opt-in to take part.

Sotiris Georgiopoulos, director of distribution system operator at UK Power Networks said: “In response to growing volumes of renewable power, UK Power Networks is the first distribution system operator to call for ‘demand turn up’.

“We’re delighted to have seen a strong response to the requirements we issued in December, including from innovators like Octopus.

"Tapping into customer flexibility means we can connect more renewable energy, keeping costs down for our customers.”