Octopus Energy boss demands internet-style revamp of inefficient national grids

At London Tech Week, Greg Jackson decries dearth of innovation in the power sector

National grids aren't designed 'to handle' the energy needs of today, the head of Britain's Octopus Energy says. Getty Images

The boss of a leading energy company on Tuesday railed against global governments over the “stodgy” pace of innovation in the power sector.

“You essentially have a grid and a government that control the energy system — and the result is a phenomenal failure to innovate,” Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson told attendees at a London Tech Week event.

Octopus Energy has fostered a trailblazing reputation thanks to its proprietary Kraken technology, a globally scalable platform designed to drive smart grid use, increase efficiency and improve customer service.

The proof of its success lies in a fast-growing customer base for Octopus: the company now has operations in 13 countries and is contracted to serve 25 million energy accounts globally.

And while many sectorial start-ups have crashed and burned in recent months in the face of the global energy crisis, Octopus has thrived.

Several competitors have even adopted an “if you can't beat 'em join 'em” approach, using Kraken for their own offerings.

Grid locked

Yet, however powerful and pioneering a force Octopus has been, it is still beholden to state-controlled national grids — much to Mr Jackson's regret.

“The UK grid is 40 per cent empty — it's so inefficiently run," he said.

“You've got a control room where you have blokes with mouses and phones turning power stations on or off.

“They literally do it manually. Can you imagine that with the internet?!”

Mr Jackson urged governments to eschew this “depressing” approach and adopt a “dynamic” tech and software-led one instead — as exemplified by Airbnb and Uber, which he said had extracted greater utility from buildings and cars.

“[Governments] must open up the grids in the way that they opened up the internet,” he said.

His expressed frustration at what he sees as an excessively bureaucratic, top-down approach to grid management.

“Imagine in the internet if you had to persuade a central authority of the benefit of connecting a new server farm or whether or not your house is going to get a different kind of Wi-Fi.

“Because that's the way energy works. If we want to build a wind farm, we have to persuade the national grid to connect us.”

Resistant to change

Effecting a systemic revolution won't come easy either.

“These organisations struggle to cope with change,” he said.

“The UK national grid was built for 130 coal power stations — its physical shape is [designed] to shift electricity from places we dig coal out of the ground to the places where people live.”

Mr Jackson believes retrofitting this shape on to the electrified ecosystem needed to boost efficiency and fight climate change, is the equivalent of fitting square pegs into round holes.

“We are going to have solar panels on roofs, batteries in houses, offshore and onshore windfarms — [the grid] just isn't designed to handle that.”