Natasha Crowe – Octopus Energy is Extra Focused on Clean Energy

Octopus Energy founder, Greg Jackson’s vision is to make energy affordable for all, and to make it clean, helping to decarbonize the power sector and stem climate change. Natasha Crowe is the Vice President for Marketing and Communications for Octopus Energy North America. She’s been working for Octopus for 20 years.

Octopus was founded in the United Kingdom in 2015. Thanks to clever branding and exceptional customer service, it is now the UK’s most popular power provider. And it has spread… to Germany, Spain, Italy, France, New Zealand, and the United States. The company is using “brilliant branding,” from its name to bright pink logo. Customer service is another key tenet of Octopus’s operations: When customers call and put on a brief hold, the top song is played for when you were 14 years old, drawing out a nostalgic sense.

Unlike traditional power companies that sell kilowatt-hours, Octopus is an energy tech company that leverages the whole household. The company seeks to use energy more intelligently, selling 100% green power and managing customer loads to keep costs low while supporting grid operations. This is done through whole house electrification and making sure that every appliance — heat pumps, solar, batteries, and even electric vehicles — are managed for the mutual benefit of customers, the grid, and the Earth.

The company sells and installs heat pumps, with no money down, financed, and payments wrapped into the Octopus bill. A new product in the UK is the Zero Bill House where Octopus partners with builders to “kit out” the homes with electric appliances, and the homeowners are guaranteed to have no energy bills… because the homes are aggregated and become part of the company’s virtual power plant model. The homes become utility assets that can be managed for utility benefit.

Power Store is another program, a zero-cost battery option. Another program in Europe is an EV charging platform so that Ev drivers have access to 90% of all charge points, removing “charge anxiety.” Octopus is working to roll this out in America.. what Natasha calls “the land of the road trip!” The Octopus Fan Club developed to counter the NIMBY aspect of wind farms. In the U.K., when the wind is blowing, and you live with a vicinity, you get reduced rates, even more reduced rates when the wind is blowing harder. The idea is to make wind farms more appealing, to change mind sets about wind farms, and recognizing that going green is a luxury for many. With innovative programs and smart tariffs, Octopus is showing that green power can be more affordable.