Top Takeaways
>> Octopus Energy is now the UK’s largest electricity supplier, serving around 6.5 million customers
>> Named a Which? Recommended Energy Provider for seven consecutive years
>> Offer a range of renewable energy services and smart tariffs beyond traditional energy supply to help you lower your bills
Despite being around for less than 10 years, Octopus Energy have taken the UK’s energy scene by storm. They’ve quickly emerged as a disruptive and welcomed force by millions of customers, including me.
Octopus have a clear mission to power homes with clean, affordable energy. To do this, they have ventured into various green initiatives and technologies, including heat pumps, renewable energy generation, battery storage and solar panels, as well as offering some of the best smart green tariffs out there.
My overarching feeling is this: Octopus Energy supply clean, affordable and renewable energy with great, clear communications. Everything about Octopus is done in a simply and straightforward manner to help you lower your bills.
Octopus Referral for £50
If you’re thinking about joining Octopus, why not get a free £50?
As a customer myself, if you sign up using my link we both receive a £50 credit to our accounts. This credit usually appears within four weeks of joining.
Quick overview of Octopus
Under the leadership of founder Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy has transformed from a newcomer to an industry leader in less than 10 years. Headquartered in London, their growth has been nothing short of remarkable. I think this has largely been fuelled by a combination of great customer service, an excellent offering and innovation. These have set them apart from the traditional suppliers.
As of 2024, Octopus Energy supplies energy to approximately 6.5 million homes and businesses across the UK – they are the country’s biggest supplier of electricity. Their customer growth has been helped by their acquisition of Shell Energy in December 2023 and deal to take the 1.5 million customers of Bulb Energy after they went into administration in 2022.
Octopus Energy operates £6 billion worth of renewable energy generation, enough to power 4 million homes. Their subsidiary, Octopus Energy Generation, manages around 4GW of renewable electricity across 240 large-scale green energy projects – they manage one in ten solar farms in the UK!
By 2030, Octopus Energy Generation aims to achieve 20GW of green generation projects, capable of powering 15 million homes.
Current offerings and services:
- Octopus Energy Generation – Focusing on investing in renewable energy
- Octopus Energy Services – Installing heat pumps, EV chargers, smart meters and smart energy hardware
- Octopus Electric Vehicles – Offering EV leasing deals, home charging solutions and smart green tariffs
Customer Reviews & My Dealings With Octopus
The company’s TrustPilot rating is impressive. Very impressive. They have a stunning 4.8 star rating from over 317,000 reviews. That’s pretty incredible.
As a customer for many years, I think their prices are fair and competitive, they have a great range of tariffs and their customer service is excellent. I’ve personally never had any issues with Octopus that have needed to be sorted quickly. I’ve always found their general email communications on price changes and updates to be clear and effective.
Other customers consistently praise Octopus Energy for its exceptional customer service too. They’re known for being easy to contact on the phones, quick to respond on email and overall being very helpful – you can’t say that for a lot of customer service departments.
Many long-term customers show strong loyalty to Octopus Energy. I must say, I’m one of them. This demonstrates a lot about the company. If you do want to leave the company however, there are no exit fees.
As well as being an energy supplier, they also have teams on the ground installing solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and smart meters. The reviews of dealing with Octopus on these installations are also very good.
Octopus tariff Options
On the whole Octopus keep things simple. They’ve never been one to over-complicate tariffs in order to use this to their advantage.
If you haven’t got any smart green tech, such as solar panels or heat pumps, you can go with the flexible or fixed 12 month tariff.
In recent years Octopus have introduced a good range of new smart tariff options to help people out with different green tech set-up scenarios. If you’re not sure what tariff you should be on, take a look at this smart tariff page.
Flexible Tariffs
Octopus Energy’s flexible tariffs provide customers with variable rates that can change based on market conditions. Flexible Octopus is the most popular tariff and is available to everyone. Having moved house recently, it’s the tariff that I’m on.
You can access more flexible tariffs if you have green technology in your home (more shortly). The Octopus Tracker, which requires smart meter installation, has rates that adjust daily according to wholesale energy prices.
Fixed Tariffs
For those seeking price stability, Octopus Energy provides fixed-rate tariffs too.
These plans guarantee consistent prices for a set period, usually 12 months. The 12m Fixed Tariff has electricity rates just slightly above the flexible rates I’m currently paying.
Smart Tariff Options for Solar, Battery Systems, Heat Pumps and EVs
Octopus Energy has a number of specialised tariffs designed to maximise the benefits of various pieces of tech. For example, if you just have solar panels there’s a tariff for that. If you just have battery storage or a heat pump, there are tariffs for those. If you have solar and battery, there’s a better tariff for this that can save you up to 90% on your electricity bills.
To give you a bit more detail. Let’s imagine you’ve got solar panels and battery storage. Octopus’ Flux tariff is your best bet here.
Octopus Flux is a combined import-export tariff offering lower rates overnight (02:00 – 05:00) and peak rates in early evenings (16:00 – 19:00). This allows customers to charge batteries when prices are low and export excess energy when prices are high.
There’s even an ‘Intelligent’ Octopus Flux version that optimises battery charging and discharging for even better rates. This tariff is currently only compatible with GivEnergy batteries.
If you have a battery storage system without solar panels, you can go with an their Agile import tariff to access the best low rates, combined with the Outgoing Agile tariff that allows you to export stored energy back to the grid when prices are high.
Do Octopus supply Renewable Energy?
Octopus Energy provides 100% renewable electricity to its customers. This is done in three ways:
- Energy sourced from their own self-generated electricity (solar farms and turbines)
- Directly purchased renewable energy (Power Purchase Agreements)
- Supplemented by renewable energy certificates (REGOs)
Octopus Energy Generation, a part of the wider group, manages over 300 renewable projects in 10 countries. These mainly consist of solar and onshore wind farms, making them Europe’s biggest investor in solar energy.
Octopus also have direct purchase agreements from over 100 different solar, wind and hydro plants across the UK. To make sure they supply 100% renewable coverage all of the time, they also buy renewable energy certificates – so called REGO certificates – where necessary. You can read more info on how Octopus get their green energy here.
Is Octopus a green energy leader?
I believe that Octopus are a green energy leader. They state themselves that their plan is to change the whole energy system so it can run on renewables. They can definitely help you to create part of a more sustainable home. Their commitment to sustainability has earned them recognition as a 2023 Which? Eco Provider, alongside Ecotricity, 100Green and Good Energy.
All of Octopus Energy’s tariffs use 100% renewable electricity as the basic standard. You can also get the Super Green Octopus tariff, which provides 100% carbon-offset gas alongside renewable electricity too.
Rather than just purchasing renewable energy certificates and not doing anything about clean generation on the front line, Octopus are generating their own electricity too. By investing in and managing numerous renewable energy projects, they are contributing significantly to the UK’s clean energy production.
Octopus think outside of the box too. They’ve recently teamed up with Ripple Energy to supply customers with energy from the UK’s first consumer-owned wind farm. In short you can buy and own part of a renewable energy project via a Ripple managed co-operative and receive energy from it.
Reasons to go with Octopus Energy
Are Octopus Energy the best green supplier in the UK? They’re certainly up at the top and with 6.5 million customers, they are the definitely the biggest. I would 100% recommend Octopus Energy as your next green energy supplier:
- Consistently high customer ratings
- Excellent communication and transparency
- Good value for money, actively helping you to save on your bills
- Great range of smart tariffs for solar panels, heat pumps, EVs etc
- 100% renewable electricity
- Significant investment in renewable energy generation (solar and wind farms)
- No exit fees
- A Which? Recommended Energy Provider for seven consecutive years (including a 2023 Which? Eco Provider)
- Continuous expansion of services and green initiatives
Octopus Referral for £50
If you’re thinking about joining Octopus, why not get a free £50?
As a customer myself, if you sign up using my link we both receive a £50 credit to our accounts. This credit usually appears within four weeks of joining.
