Octopus Energy, the UK company supplying 100% renewable electricity, is adding about 300,000 customers under a deal with The Midcounties Co-operative.
The two organisations are also forming a joint venture (JV) to develop the UK community-generated energy market.
Octopus announced at the end of August it will take on ownership and responsibility for the management and supply of energy to all customers of Co-op Energy, Flow and GB Energy. The Co-op Energy brand will be retained, with The Midcounties Co-operative continuing to grow the customer base as part of its wider utilities strategy. All GB Energy and Flow Energy customers, meanwhile, will become Octopus Energy customers.
Co-op Energy acquired Flow Energy and its 130,000 customers in 2018, keeping the brand. Two years earlier, in 2016, the UK’s largest member-owned energy supplier took over all accounts of GB Energy after the latter ceased trading.
Octopus has informed its new customers that their prices will either stay the same or drop after the transition. This is the fourth deal in the last year through which Octopus Energy is boosting its customer numbers, now to over a million.
“The market is now more competitive than ever, and it is clear to us that having the best technology is absolutely critical to delivering the best service to customers while maintaining a sustainable business for the longer term. Octopus have developed what we consider to be the most innovative and customer focussed technology anywhere in the industry today,” said Phil Ponsonby, CEO of Midcounties Co-operative.
Octopus said it will need a few months to move all customers onto its systems as seamlessly as possible.
COMMUNITY-GENERATED ENERGY
The Midcounties Co-operative’s energy business and Octopus will set up a JV to invest in community energy projects, provide practical support to community groups, and work to increase the volume of energy purchased from community schemes in the UK.
Co-op Energy says it is already the largest buyer of community-generated energy in the UK. Octopus, on the other hand, was the first energy supplier in the country to offer a Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff for small producers, such as solar households, in advance of the government-set deadline in 2020.
When the deal with Octopus was announced, the companies stressed that Co-op Energy will continue to buy 100% renewable energy from the 80 community energy projects it supports across the country.
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Whitley Solar Farm sheep. Source: British Solar Renewables. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic via flickr.
