Where were you both when this deal came together?

Hannah Bascom: When we called each other to say congratulations on the deal, I was at my child’s piano lessons. And [Nick] was at a volleyball tournament!

There's a lot of discussion right now around load growth, AI demand and customer-driven capacity. What are you seeing in the market that made this deal make sense now? 

Hannah Bascom: Leading up to Octopus securing the deal, the process was really interesting. We had a ton of interest from many entities that didn’t particularly have a deep energy background.

But the market trends that we’re seeing around the growth of AI and load growth and energy prices offers such a unique opportunity for more players to participate in this space.

I was thrilled that Octopus was the winner, because it’s clear we see the world in a very aligned way. We were basically finishing each other’s sentences in the due diligence presentations.

Nick Chaset: Utilities are having to rethink how they engage with customers around load flexibility. We observed that market specialization and localized technology were critical to expanding our solution set.

So we started a process about a year ago to evaluate what that might look like. Uplight was always really at the top of the list of partners… and an industrial logic that made sense on paper was something we were able to validate.

At a high level, what will actually be different for utilities as a result of this? 

Nick Chaset: They shouldn’t see a lot of difference. Over time, some of the Octopus solutions may start to be integrated into Uplight’s offering. And yes, there may be some pink Octopus plushies in the background on Zoom.

Nick, from Octopus's perspective — why Uplight? Why this path into the U.S. market?  

Nick Chaset: The U.S. is fundamentally different [from the European market]. Outside of Texas, you really are working through vertically integrated utilities that are first and foremost infrastructure asset managers. To really effectuate flexibility at scale, you have to be able to interact with existing CIS/CRM systems, extract the data from that system of record, do interesting things with it, and then send it back.

Hannah, from Uplight's side — what were you looking for in a partner at this stage?

Hannah Bascom: 80% of consumers say they would like to participate [in energy flexibility], and a single-digit number actually do. Leveraging Octopus and best-in-class engagement can be a major driver of getting more customers involved. They are going to enable us to continue to scale the programs, deliver for our clients, and do more, but still as an independent company that is very much charting our own destiny.

Just to clarify — Uplight will remain an independent company going forward. A strong partnership with Octopus, but no new branding anytime soon? 

Hannah Bascom: No time soon.

How do Uplight, Octopus, and Kraken actually work together here? What does that relationship look like in practice, especially in complex regulated utility environments? 

Nick Chaset: We see it as being a hugely complementary relationship between the three parties.

First, Kraken is an integrated tech stack that starts with a CIS/CRM and goes from there to provide other valuable capabilities like Edge flexibility management.

Uplight is an intermediate layer that connects into that core system of record at the utility and facilitates customer engagement and flexibility management.

Octopus then is the consumer company that knows how to talk to customers and has built customer-facing technology like our Octopus app, and is going to work to scale participation in demand flexibility initiatives.

Fundamentally, those three things go together, and that’s something that we’re really excited to test out in the U.S. market.

A lot of demand flexibility in the U.S. is much more oriented around event-based programs. So how do we marry best-in-class event-based approaches and the predictive analytics capabilities that Uplight has built — being able to say 97%, 98% of the megawatts we’re bidding in are going to show up — so it starts to look like a traditional resource, and marry that with more price-based optimization across assets like EVs. Huge opportunity there.

Where do you expect this to be harder than people think? 

Hannah Bascom: Nick and I haven’t talked about this one, but I wonder how much education there is back in the mothership about the differences in the market here.

By "the mothership", you mean Octopus HQ in London? 

Hannah Bascom: Correct. On paper, regulated environments are very different — but there’s so much nuance and complexity. How different utility programs operate from jurisdiction to jurisdiction — it’s mind-bogglingly complex.

So I do think that there’s probably a learning curve that will occur there, just because of the nature of the market here.

Nick Chaset: The speed at which we are used to operating is very different than the speed at which utilities and regulatory commissions move. It’s going to be a little bit slower on the uptake to get that scale.

If someone is watching this from the outside, what should they look for over the next 12 to 18 months? What does success look like to you? 

Hannah Bascom: First is to continue to lead the Uplight team to make sure internal operations don’t skip a beat — and that we continue to raise the bar on what we’re delivering for our clients.

The second is furthering our demand stack strategy, combining demand-side resources like energy efficiency, rates, and demand management into a single portfolio. This is getting traction in the market, and we’re starting to see regulatory developments.

Third is delivering the things that our clients expect from us. We’re doing large, complex programs — we want to continue to do them well, do them better, and delight our customers.

And then last is to grow the business.

Disclaimer: AHG has worked with both Uplight and Octopus Energy in the past, and currently works with Kraken.