Octopus is testing out its new tariff aimed at helping customers save on their energy bills (Picture: Gett Images)

The cost of living crisis has left millions of people across the country struggling to make ends meet, with the cost of essentials such as food and energy bills remaining stubbornly high.

With that in mind we’re all looking for ways to save money on our bills, or even accept help and support from the Government and energy companies when they come up with ways to keep our costs down.

One scheme which is being introduced comes from energy firm Octopus, with its ‘Octopus tracker’ – designed to help customers save on their spiralling energy costs.

How does the scheme work and how can you sign up for it?

How does Octopus Tracker work?

Octopus Tracker is a variable tariff which will base its costs on the wholesale price of energy – in other words the price that suppliers pay.

This means that the price of your energy under the scheme will go up and down each day depending on the independently published wholesale market price.

The idea is that it allows customers to adjust their usage based on the market costs – which in turn will give them the opportunity to save money, the idea being that they can shift larger amounts of energy usage to when the cost is lower.

The scheme is available to those with a smart meter (Picture: Getty Images)

The scheme launches in July, but the company has warned that prices are naturally likely to be lower when it does – and that they could double later in the year, when the winter months lead to people switching their lights on earlier in the day and putting the heating on.

Octopus has offset that by introducing its own price cap for its energy costs, which will see customers paying a maximum of 100p per kWh for electricity, and 30p per kWh for gas.

However, this is higher than the Ofgem price cap, so this is something to bear in mind before you sign up.

How can you sign up to the scheme?

The bad news is you may not be able to in the first instance.

The Octopus tracker scheme is being made available in beta – testing – form, to around 50,000 existing customers.

People have been looking for ways to help with energy costs in the wake of soaring bills (Picture: Getty Images)

If you are already with Octopus Energy and you would like to be a part of the test, you can register your interest at their website.

You can opt out on to one of their standard tariffs at any time – but you’ll have to wait at least two weeks for the switch to go through, and you won’t be able to return to Tracker for nine months afterwards.

You’ll also need a working smart meter to switch to the Tracker scheme – Octopus can fit one of these for you at no cost, but you’ll need to stick with one of their standard tariffs until it is up and running – which could take some weeks.

MORE : What is the last date to redeem the Government’s £66 and £67 energy vouchers?

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