Octopus Energy to acquire major stake in US flexibility provider Uplight

Octopus Energy Group has said it will acquire a majority stake in Uplight, a leading provider of customer engagement and flexibility management solutions in the US.

According to the renewable energy major, Uplight transforms customer participation into dependable grid capacity.

The deal is being made in partnership with France-based energy tech major Schneider Electric, which will remain as a significant minority partner. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed later this year.

Uplight serves over 85 utilities across North America, including eight of the 10 largest in the US, and manages over 8.5GW of flexible load, delivering demand response, distributed energy resource management and customer engagement solutions to millions of customers. 

Commenting in a release was Nick Chaset, Chief Executive Officer of Octopus Energy US: “As energy demand surges in the US, utilities need the tools to deliver reliable and affordable power for their customers. 

“This partnership brings together Octopus’s world-leading expertise in flexibility, Schneider Electric’s grid intelligence and Uplight’s deep relationships with leading US utilities to turn customer participation into dependable grid capacity.”

With the acquisition, Uplight will continue to operate as an independent platform focused on customer-centric flexibility management.

According to Octopus in a release, the investment provides their utility customers the tools to modernise their grid operations and strengthen resilience as AI-driven data centres, electrification and distributed energy sharply increase electricity demand across North America. 

By connecting customer participation more directly to grid operations, it adds, utilities can unlock flexible capacity faster and more affordably than traditional infrastructure buildouts.

More on Octopus Energy:
Octopus Energy and Masdar unite to power UK and Africa
Octopus Energy Generation invest $1bn into Californian clean tech

Managing demand alongside reliability

For Octopus, this access to flexible capacity is a key driving point for the acquisition.

The company says that meeting the surge in demand while maintaining reliability, affordability and energy security is one of the defining energy challenges of the decade. Utilities are increasingly seeking solutions that engage customers directly in managing energy use.

Uplight enables households and businesses to actively participate in flexibility programmes, turning distributed energy resources into capacity that utilities can deploy when and where the grid needs it.

Flexible energy systems are a key focus for Octopus Energy, which operates the world’s largest virtual power plant, consisting of more than 350,000 EVs enrolled worldwide and enabling millions of customers to tap into demand-side flexibility tariffs. 

The investment in Uplight provides Octopus Energy further access into the US market, by working directly with utilities to unlock flexible capacity. 

Additionally, with Schneider remaining on as a minority partner, Octopus says they will provide access to its OneDERMS platform, helping connect demand-side flexibility with grid operations and manage increasingly dynamic power systems.

Kraken, the operating system for utilities originally developed by Octopus Energy Group and now operating as an independent global technology business, will begin exploring collaboration with Uplight, encompassing customer operations capabilities, and flexibility orchestration.

Said Frédéric Godemel, Executive Vice President, Energy Management at Schneider Electric: “Our continued commitment to Uplight reflects a shared focus on connecting customer programmes more directly to grid operations. Uplight’s platform will help transform distributed energy resources into reliable, market-ready capacity, and we will support their mission to make energy more flexible, clean and affordable.”

Luis D’Acosta, Chief Executive Officer, Uplight: “Uplight has always been committed to unlocking grid capacity by empowering the energy consumer.”

According to D’Acosta, with the backing from Octopus, Uplight will be positioned to “bridge the gap between customer participation and grid operations. 

“Together, we are proving that distributed energy resources – when managed with precision and scale – can perform as the reliable, utility-scale capacity needed to ensure a resilient and affordable energy future.”