Inside Octopus Energy: Recent Episodes
Octopus Energy
We believe energy should be better. A better experience for customers, better for the planet, and better value for money. Our aim of this podcast series is to give you real insight into our company’s DNA – the way we work, the way we think, our values, and our people. We’ll be chatting to various members of the Octopus Energy team over the coming series, exploring everything from our products and services, to the technology that sits behind them and the culture that is driving us to deliver Cheaper Greener Energy.
.To find out more about the Octopus Energy Equality Foundation, email oeef@octopus.energy. To explore early careers opportunities, visit www.octopus.energy/early-careers or jobsthatmatter.uk.
Public charging doesn’t have to be complicated – in fact it can be a breeze. In this episode of Inside Octopus, we spotlight Octopus Electroverse - Europe’s largest consumer EV charging platform driving the switch to clean, electric transport. Founder Matt Davies and Electrifying.com’s Ginny Buckley join host Russell Goldsmith to bust myths about range anxiety, boost charging confidence and reveal how Electroverse is connecting drivers to more than one million chargers worldwide - from cars to boats to planes. Tune in and discover how we’re driving decarbonisation on the move.Find out more at https://electroverse.com/
Step inside the electrifying atmosphere of Octopus’s Energy Tech Summit, where more than 3,000 customers, innovators and industry leaders gathered in London to debate the future of energy.In this special live episode of Inside Octopus, host Russell Goldsmith is joined by headline speakers, including former F1 champion Damon Hill, motoring journalist Quentin Willson, Octopus Energy founder and CEO Greg Jackson, as well as representatives from Nvidia, Greenpeace and more.Together, they put a spotlight on how AI, EVs, heat pumps, and digital innovation are making energy greener, cheaper, and more secure, and discuss why smarter consumption is as crucial as new infrastructure in building a reliable clean energy grid.With first-hand insights from Octopus customers attending the Summit, this episode captures the energy and excitement of an event focused on driving real change – and takes you straight to the heart of the conversations shaping the future of power for people and the planet.
What if the most effective lever in the US energy transition is not more generation, but shifting when and how energy is consumed? As EVs, AI, and electrification accelerate demand, utilities are rethinking load flexibility as a core strategy for grid stability and affordability.In this episode, host Russell Goldsmith is joined by Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US and Executive Vice President of North America for Octopus Energy Group, and Lori Mitchell, Director of San Jose Clean Energy. Together, they discuss how smart tariffs, flexible devices, and customer trust can help optimize demand across hours. From Texas to California, they explore the real-world potential of Flexibility as a Service and why load flexibility is becoming central to how the US grid evolves.
Octopus Energy is rapidly expanding its engineering services to deploy low-carbon technologies to help the UK transition to a net zero energy system. This expansion creates significant career opportunities in the green skills sector. In this episode, host Russell Goldsmith talks with John Szymik, CEO of Octopus Energy Services, and Jack Longman, an EV ChargePoint installer, about engineering careers within the company, highlighting the opportunities for both experienced professionals and those new to the field.
In this episode, Russell Goldsmith hosts Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, and Jason Mann, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, to discuss the effects of a zonal pricing system in the UK energy market. They explore how the current electricity market operates, why changes are needed to address high energy bills and system inefficiencies, and how zonal pricing could offer a more effective and cheaper solution. The discussion covers the benefits and potential challenges of transitioning to a zonal pricing system and the potential impact on both businesses and consumers.
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 homesEffie 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.
In this episode of Inside Octopus Energy, we focus on growth and what it takes to go from zero to over 1.8 million customers in just four years.
Hosts Russell & Trudy were joined by our Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder, Stuart Jackson, who talked through everything from bringing on board our first customers, through managing the rapid scaling of the business, to future plans on how to continue the successful growth of the company.
We also hear from Claire Osborne, energy consultant & Founder of The Mindset Society, who focuses on Start-up to Scale-up coaching. Claire is currently working with Octopus but her background includes two years leading the energy business for the comparison site, uSwitch, just around the time of Octopus Energy’s launch, so we were keen to hear her perspectives on the market at the time and the impact we’ve had in the market.
In this episode of Inside Octopus Energy, the topic of conversation was the unique technology that sits behind our products and services that is helping us to deliver Cheaper Greener Energy.
Hosts Trudy & Russell were joined by three of the team responsible for shaping and developing Kraken, our technology platform: Gilly Ames, one of our Front-End Developers working on Kraken’s API; Ruby Mitchell, a Senior Operations Manager who supports a wide range of partners who have licensed the Kraken technology to use for themselves; and James Eddison, CTO and one of the company’s co-founders.
This special episode was recorded after the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, visited Octopus Energy's London offices to talk about the future of renewable energy, hear our announcement of 1,000 jobs and a new technology centre in Manchester, England.
Russell Goldsmith was joined by Octopus Energy Founder & CEO, Greg Jackson and Clem Cowton, the company’s Director of External Affairs to discuss the background to the visit, how and why we made it happen, what was discussed, what it means for the business and what changes it could bring.
Following on from our previous episode's discussion around our company culture, we decided to take a step back and record what feels like a bit of a prequel - hence why we called it Episode 0! Hosts Trudy & Russell welcome back our CEO, Greg Jackson, to find out more about why he set up the business in 2015, his plans moving forward, and how on track we are to realising his vision.
Greg talks us through how he scoped the business, why the name Octopus, his expectations for growth, the kind of business he wanted to build from the start, in terms of service expectation from customers, as well as his plans for the future.
Lots of people want to know what happens inside Octopus Energy. Most importantly, our ever-expanding team. When we started, we all sat within earshot of every conversation, every phone call. We could see each other’s screens and learn what Octopus was from each other, as we built it. Now our team is spread across locations (including a lot of remote working), across time zones and continents, we need ever more ways to share what Octopus is.
That's why we've launched this podcast series, and in Episode 1, our podcast hosts, Russell & Trudy, were joined online by Founder and CEO, Greg Jackson, and Marketing and Product Director, Rebecca Dibb-Simkin to talk about the culture of our business.
Of course, this podcast series will also be great if you're thinking of joining Octopus, and want to know if it’s right for you - it should be more insightful than a typical salesy web page. Similarly for the dozens, maybe hundreds of organisations who partner with us.
Beyond that, there are many people who think about company organisation and culture. Octopus is hot on decentralisation, devolved authority, upside-down management, trust, freedom and responsibility. Blue chip strategy consultants, Boston Consulting Group immersed themselves in our way of working and we’d like to open this up to others. Even competitors :)