UK energy supplier Octopus hopes to cement its expansion in the USA by acquiring a majority stake in Uplight, a provider of customer engagement and flexibility management technology that transform customer participations into grid capacity.

The deal was made in partnership with Schneider Electric, which will remain a significant minority partner.

Uplight serves over 85 utilities across North America, including eight of the ten largest in the USA, and manages over 8.5GW of flexible load, delivering demand response, distributed energy resource management and customer engagement to millions of users. Uplight will continue to operate as an independent platform focused on customer-centric flexibility management.

The investment gives utilities the tools to modernise their grid operations and strengthen resilience as AI-driven data centres, electrification and distributed energy sharply increase electricity demand across North America. By connecting customer participation more directly to grid operations, utilities can unlock flexible capacity faster and more affordably than traditional infrastructure buildouts.

Meeting this surge in demand while maintaining reliability, affordability and energy security is one of the defining energy challenges of the decade. Utilities are increasingly seeking ways to engage customers directly in managing energy use.

Uplight enables households and businesses to participate actively in flexibility programmes, turning distributed energy resources into reliable capacity that utilities can deploy when and where the grid needs it.

Octopus Energy operates what it says is the world’s largest virtual power plant, with more than 350,000 electric vehicles enrolled worldwide and enabling millions of customers to lower their energy bills through demand-side flexibility tariffs. The investment in Uplight means Octopus will bring this expertise into the US market at scale by working directly with utilities to unlock flexible capacity and support more resilient power systems.

The partnership brings together Octopus Energy’s consumer innovation and global flexibility expertise, Uplight’s established US utility relationships and proprietary engagement and flexibility technology, and Schneider Electric’s distribution management systems and its OneDerms platform, helping connect demand-side flexibility with grid operations and manage increasingly dynamic power systems.

Kraken (kraken.tech), the operating system for utilities originally developed by Octopus and now operating as an independent global technology business, will begin exploring collaboration with Uplight, encompassing customer operations capabilities and flexibility orchestration to combine the companies’ respective expertise.

 “As energy demand surges in the USA, utilities need the tools to deliver reliable and affordable power for their customers,” said Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy (www.octopusenergy.group) in the USA. “This partnership brings together Octopus’ world-leading expertise in flexibility, Schneider Electric’s grid intelligence and Uplight’s deep relationships with leading US utilities to turn customer participation into dependable grid capacity. Together, we can help accelerate the shift to a smarter, more resilient and more affordable energy system.”

Frédéric Godemel, executive vice president at Schneider Electric (www.se.com), added: “Our continued commitment to Uplight reflects a shared focus on connecting customer programmes more directly to grid operations. Uplight’s platform will help transform distributed energy resources into reliable, market-ready capacity, and we will support their mission to make energy more flexible, clean and affordable.”

And Luis D’Acosta, CEO of Uplight (uplight.com), said: “Uplight has always been committed to unlocking grid capacity by empowering the energy consumer. With the strategic backing of Octopus Energy and Schneider Electric, Uplight is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between customer participation and grid operations. Together, we are proving that distributed energy resources – when managed with precision and scale – can perform as the reliable, utility-scale capacity needed to ensure a resilient and affordable energy future.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to complete later this year.