Octopus Energy Italy announced the removal of the Multi-hourly Flex rate from its cataloguethe operator’s only proposal built on traditional time slots.
The company justified the choice with the change in the electricity system compared to that for which the division into F1, F2 and F3 was thought of about twenty years agoand presents the initiative as a preview awaiting a broader review of the sector rules.
The F1, F2 and F3 bands
For those who are not familiar, the bill of the protected market and many multi-hourly offers distinguishes three periods. There F1 covers peak hours, Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm.
There F2 includes the intermediate bands: Monday to Friday from 7am to 8am and from 7pm to 11pm, as well as Saturday from 7am to 11pm.
F3 collects the night hours, from Monday to Saturday from 11pm to 7am, and the whole day on Sundays and holidays. The plant, explains Octopus, was born in a context dominated by fossil fuels, in which for years the prevailing indication was to shift consumption towards the evening and night.
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According to the company’s reconstruction, the current scenario follows a different trend. On sunny days, photovoltaics generate a significant share of energy during central hours; in the late afternoon production drops rapidly, just when many people return home and consumption increases. In a few hours we therefore move from a strong availability of renewable energy to a phase in which it is necessary to resort to other sourcesbecause in Italy there is still a lack of storage systems large enough to conserve the energy previously produced on a large scale.
Hence the example proposed by Octopus: on a sunny day starting the washing machine at 2pm can be more useful than doing it at 9pm. Who continues to follow the directions on the bandsthe company claims, risks concentrate consumption precisely at peak momentshelping to raise them and, over time, to increase the costs on the bill.
Price data
In support of the thesis, the operator cites internal processing on data from the Energy Markets Manager (GME), relating to the period between April 2022 and September 2026. In 36 months out of 54, i.e. in two cases out of three, the most expensive segment was F2 and not F1. In five months, three of which consecutive in 2026 (from April to June), F1 even cost less than F3, the night and festive one. In the central hours of the day, the company observes, solar production pushes prices down: the signal that the bands should transmit thus varies from one month to the next and does not help guide consumption.
What changes for customers
For customers who currently have Multi-Hour Flex active, nothing changes immediately: the contract continues under the existing conditions. The tariff however, it will no longer be available at the time of renewal. However, the indexed single-hour tariff, Octopus Flex Mono, remains in the catalogue, in which the cost of the energy component is identical at all hours of the day.
The choices of new customers
Data on the signing of new contracts in recent weeks, updated to October 2026, indicate a net preference for the locked price. Nine out of ten new customers opted for a fixed rate and, among these, 90% chose the 24-month formula. The remaining 9% opted for an indexed, single- or multi-hourly tariff.
The trend, Octopus notes, is growing: the share of the fixed rate was 86.5% in 2024, rose to 90% in 2025 and stood at 91% in recent weeks. The company reads the data as the reflection of a phase of uncertainty linked to international tensions and the instability of energy pricesin which families would first of all try to avoid surprises on their bills.
