Inside Octopus Energy

It’s hard to keep up with the pace at which AI is changing our lives – and energy is one of the many areas it is rapidly transforming. In this episode, Russell Goldsmith is joined by Steve Wattam, Head of Data Science in Kraken’s Flex business, and Ali Teeney, Kraken’s Global Head of Machine Learning and AI. They discuss how Kraken, the Octopus Energy Group’s tech arm, uses AI and machine learning to further improve customer service and create engaging roles for its team – while helping to build smarter, cleaner energy systems globally.

Since launching the Octopus Energy brand in Spain, the clean energy retailer has grown from a team of ten employees, to over 500. In addition to energy, the company now installs EV chargers, heat pumps and solar panels in customers’ homes. In this episode of Inside Octopus, host Russell Goldsmith reconnects with Roberto Giner, CEO of Octopus Energy Spain. Roberto shares the journey of Octopus Energy's remarkable expansion in Spain, the smooth integration of his former business, Umeme, and the adoption of the Octopus culture in Spain. Roberto also discusses the successful migration onto the Kraken platform and the exciting future of Spain's energy market, including the country’s leading role in solar energy generation.

Heat pumps are like magic, turning one unit of energy into three to four units of heat. In this episode, our podcast host Russell Goldsmith chats with Effie Evans, director of Octopus Energy’s heat pump business, about the important role these clean tech devices are playing in decarbonising our homes Effie and Russell discuss Octopus Energy’s efforts in rolling out heat pumps across the UK – with thousands of new installers hired this year, the opening of a heat pump factory in Portadown, Northern Ireland, and the launch of the ‘Cosy 6’ heat pump. They also address how Octopus is dispelling myths and misinformation about this crucial technology.

How Kraken – the world’s first next-gen energy operating system – is powering a transformation at Octopus and beyondAt the heart of everything the Octopus group does is Kraken – a world-leading operating system for utilities. In this episode, Octopus CEO Greg Jackson and Kraken Chairman Gavin Patterson shine a light on the unique potential that Kraken unlocks, from green tech innovation and optimization to lightning fast migrations.

Introducing Zero Bills: the first-of-its-kind smart tariff providing eligible households zero bills for five years, guaranteed. In this episode, we talk to Michael Cottrell, Product & Partnerships Director at Octopus Energy, and Holly Gavin, Product Manager at Kraken Technologies, about how we're partnering with housing developers to build the homes of the future.

The EV market has taken off in recent years, and we're right at the forefront of the transition. In this episode, we talk to Fiona Howarth, CEO of Octopus Electric Vehicles, and Claire Miller, Director of Tech and Innovation, about the growth story of Octopus' EV specialist business.

Today we're back across the pond to talk to the US team about the exciting growth they've seen over the last 18 months since launching in Texas. We chat again with Michael Lee, the CEO of Octopus Energy US, Lily Stein who is an Octopus veteran and moving to Texas from Australia to lead operations and Naja Cossey, the Director of Marketing for US. We dive into some of the new programs and campaigns they've been running stateside to help customers through times of rising energy prices and grid uncertainty. We discuss the impact a brand that looks after its customers with such outrageously good service can have on the way customers use energy and how in turn, that can shift the way the market works.

In this episode, our podcast host, Russell Goldsmith, chats with Alex Schoch, who heads up our global flexibility team, and Devrim Celal, the CEO of Octopus’ flexibility technology arm KrakenFlex about how to unlock the untapped resource of household flexibility. It’s clear – we’re entering a new era of energy in which households are moving from passive off-takers to active enablers of a smarter, greener and cheaper grid. For the first time ever, UK’s National Grid this winter is offering a new service to households, allowing them to reduce their usage during times of peak demand and get paid for it. Alex and Devrim explain how the scheme works and what other innovations we are working on to build the smart grid of the future.

The well regarded Energy Advice UK Facebook group, founded by Gemma Hatvani in 2020, now holds nearly 100,000 members. Octopus's Chief Product Officer Rebecca Dibb-Simkin talks to Gemma and her colleague Ian about their rollercoaster journey, how their community supports each other and works with suppliers, and shares some energy efficiency advice from the group.

Octopus Energy is known for its breakthrough innovations - one of the most exciting ones is The Fan Club, the world’s first local tariff that provides customers living near wind turbines with cheaper energy when the wind is blowing, with a discount of up to 50%. In this episode, we welcome back Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, who explains how the tariff has come about, how it works and what impact it has had so far. We also hear from the Fan Club’s first customer James Laing, sustainability pioneer and Fan Club fan Julia Hailes, and Dan Gowthorpe, who hosts one of Octopus’ Fan Club wind turbines.

In Episode 8, we chatted to the people who head up Octopus Energy around the world. And so off the back of that discussion, we decided to invite each of those CEOs back onto the podcast for a deeper dive into Octopus Energy in their respective territories, but also with a view of meeting some more members of their teams to get a real understanding of what it's like to work for our company around the globe and find out a bit more about some of the projects they are working on. For the first in this special series of episodes, we're off to Octopus Energy Germany with Andrew Mack and his team.

Green energy is already the cheapest way to generate electricity, but we need to build a lot more solar and wind farms to move the world to a fully green energy system. In this episode, our host Russell Goldsmith delves into the world of Octopus Energy's green generation arm. Joined by Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, Matt Setchell, Co-head of Octopus Renewables, Paul Loran, Head of Innovation, and Ashleigh Gray, Chief of Staff, they talk about how Octopus is disrupting the renewable generation space in favour of consumers.

The UK currently faces a massive hike in energy bills as a result of global energy prices, which will force many more families into fuel poverty. The energy industry and the government are working hard to soften the blow of sky-high global gas prices on consumers. In this special episode, host Russell Goldsmith was joined by Octopus Energy Group’s CEO and founder, Greg Jackson, to talk about the causes of the crisis, the actions industry and government are taking to protect customers, and the changes we need to see to make sure we don’t end up in the same situation again.

In just five years, Octopus Energy has gone from strength to strength and become a truly global company. In this episode, our host Russell Goldsmith tries to find out if Octopus's success in the UK can serve as a blueprint for other countries. He's joined by the people who head up Octopus Energy around the world: Michael Lee, CEO of Octopus Energy USA; Roberto Giner, CEO of Octopus Energy, Spain; Giorgio Tomassetti, CEO of Octopus Energy, Italy; Hajime Nakamura CEO in Octopus Energy Japan, Ari Sargent, Managing Director of Octopus Energy, New Zealand and finally Octopus Energy Germany’s CEO, Andrew Mack.

In a first for the Inside Octopus podcast, we throw out the rulebook and feature no representative from the eponymous company. Instead, we speak to the five-year-old winners of our fifth birthday competition, about what they did to win, how we can stop climate change, and why they're excited for the future.

In this episode, our podcast host, Russell Goldsmith, makes a road trip to Octopus Energy’s multi-million pound commitment to the decarbonisation of heat, for a guided tour from some of the tentacled experts, old and new, working on the green heating revolution. Following all the COVID guidelines to be there, Russell was joined by Clem Cowton, Director of External Affairs, and John Szymik, CEO of Octopus Energy Services plus newer recruits, Aimee Clark, Head of Commercial an expert in bringing new, smart tech to the mass market, and Peter Konowalczyk a leading physicist and pioneer in the heat pump space.

In Episode 2, we already spoke about our technology platform Kraken - the giant robot that sits at the heart of Octopus Energy and the enabler of our rapid growth, innovative products, and outstanding customer service. In this episode of Inside Octopus, we talk about the transformative power that Kraken can unleash in other energy companies, one of which is European energy giant E.ON, which began licensing Kraken for its UK business in March 2020 and since then has migrated more than 2.2m customers onto the new digital platform. Host Russell Goldsmith is joined by Dr. Karsten Wildberger, Chief Operating Officer at E.ON, and Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson to talk about the changes Kraken has brought about for E.ON UK.

In February 2021, Greg Jackson, CEO and founder of Octopus Energy, explained on the BBC's CEO Secrets series why Octopus Energy decided against having an HR department despite its considerable size. The interview headlined 'My billion-pound company has no HR department' sparked an, in parts, heated debate on social media among HR and business professionals and on the day ranked at number two in the most read articles in the BBC news app. In this episode host Russell Goldsmith met up with Greg to talk about his approach to HR and answer some of the most frequently asked questions Octopus received following the interview, covering topics from conflict resolution to hiring and employee happiness. They were joined by best-selling author, keynote speaker and futurist Jacob Morgan, who is also the host of the Future of Work podcast and the founder of the Future of Work University, to dig deeper into the role of HR and the future of people management in modern businesses.

Host Russell Goldsmith welcomes Rachel Fletcher to Octopus Energy and chats about why she left her role as CEO of UK water regulator Ofwat to become our new Director of Regulation and Economics. Rachel also explains what her role will involve and what it means to the business.

This special episode introduces the team who recently launched Octopus Energy US in Texas, just days before the State was hit by one of the worst winter storms it had seen in 100 years. Host Russell Goldsmith was joined by Octopus Energy US CEO, Michael Lee, the US Head of Marketing, Natasha Crowe and Operations Lead, Kelly Rankine, who had only just moved to Texas a few months beforehand, having previously worked with Octopus Energy in the UK. Michael, Natasha and Kelly talked about how some of the team experienced the frightening impact of storm firsthand, how the marketing team pivoted to become the front line of customer service and what part renewables and companies like Octopus Energy can play to avoid such dire events in the future.