Octopus Energy Takes Majority Stake in Uplight to Accelerate Customer-Driven Grid Reliability and Affordability
Strategic backing advances Uplight’s Demand Stack strategy which leverages customer participation to deliver predictable, utility-scale flexibility as grid constraints intensify
BOULDER, Colo., March 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Uplight, a clean energy technology company that unlocks grid capacity by activating customers and their devices to generate, shift, and save energy, today announced Octopus Energy Group, a global energy and technology group, and longstanding investor Schneider Electric, a global energy technology leader, have signed a definitive agreement to invest in Uplight. The investment strategically backs the company as an independent platform focused on customer-centric flexibility management at scale.
Under the agreement, Octopus Energy Group will acquire a majority stake in Uplight and Schneider Electric will remain a significant minority partner. Uplight will remain an independent company, enabling rapid innovation while collaborating with these long-term strategic partners toward a shared goal of connecting the customer to the control room to improve affordability for energy customers and create more reliable grid flexibility.
“This investment reflects a shared conviction in Uplight’s unique ability to transform demand-side resources into reliable, precise and cost-effective capacity, and the importance of customer-centric flexibility as grid, utility and customer needs intensify,” said Luis D’Acosta, Chief Executive Officer of Uplight. “With the strategic backing of Octopus Energy Group, we will accelerate our Demand Stack strategy, which unifies fragmented demand-side initiatives into predictable, aggregated resources to power grid reliability, energy affordability and decarbonization.”
Across North America, electric grids are confronting sustained demand growth, driven by electrification and the rapid expansion of data centers. As supply margins tighten and costs rise, utilities must tap into the flexibility available via distributed energy resources in customer homes and businesses, which are faster and more cost-effective to deploy than traditional infrastructure. Uplight’s platform enables customer participation and grid-edge assets to perform as dependable capacity that utilities can use to meet real-world grid conditions.
The investment reflects an alignment of complementary strengths designed to accelerate the role of demand-side flexibility in grid operations:
- Octopus Energy Group has deep experience operating customer-first energy businesses at scale—serving over 11M households in 27 countries – and is a global leader in flexibility management, with proven expertise driving participation, enrollment and sustained behavior change across millions of customers. Its operating perspective complements Uplight’s role as the platform that transforms customer participation into utility and grid outcomes.
- Schneider Electric’s continued investment reflects evolving utility needs as demand-side flexibility becomes an essential operational grid resource. Uplight will continue to leverage Schneider Electric’s deep expertise in grid operations, automation, DER orchestration and utility systems integration—further strengthened by Schneider Electric’s One Digital Grid platform and advanced grid DERMS capabilities—to better align customer programs with both grid planning needs and system-wide performance outcomes.
“Uplight sits at the center of one of the energy industry’s biggest challenges: unlocking flexible capacity quickly while keeping energy affordable,” said Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy U.S. “Octopus is a consumer energy company, and we build products and services that help households and businesses participate directly in the energy system. Combined with Uplight’s ability to aggregate flexibility at scale, that participation becomes dependable grid capacity that utilities can rely on.”
“Our continued commitment to Uplight reflects a shared focus on connecting customer programs more directly to grid operations,” said Frédéric Godemel, Executive Vice President, Energy Management at Schneider Electric. “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.”
The investment will directly support targeted product development that strengthens Uplight’s role as the technology partner for customer-driven flexibility and grid operations:
- Advancing the Demand Stack: AI-powered analytics and business intelligence will power improved customer experiences, expanded visibility into customer participation across programs and demand-side portfolio optimization.
- Enhancing customer experiences and outcomes: deeper customer intelligence and expanded extensibility across behavioral, rate and device-based programs to increase participation, improve engagement and satisfaction, and drive residential and business customer energy bill savings.
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Delivering predictable, operationally usable flexible capacity: aggregate, dispatch, monitor and evaluate demand-side resources based on real-time localized grid needs through multi-asset Predictive Capacity Dispatch, IEEE2030.5 integration and integrated DERMS.
Kraken, the operating system for utilities originally developed by Octopus Energy Group 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 best in class expertise.
Uplight operates at a breadth and depth that allows demand-side flexibility to perform under real-world conditions. The company currently manages 8.5 gigawatts of flexible load across 85+ utility clients and 75+ ecosystem partners, and has tripled flexible capacity year-over-year. Alongside increasing flexible capacity, Uplight also continues to improve energy customer experiences and outcomes, delivering over $65.9M in annual energy customer savings and incentives in 2025.
The transaction is expected to close following customary regulatory approvals. Evercore is serving as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Uplight. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
For more information about Uplight, please visit uplight.com.
About Uplight
Uplight is a clean energy technology company that unlocks grid capacity by activating customers and their connected devices to generate, shift, and save energy. Uplight enables sustainable load growth by combining personalized customer experiences with an open, flexible load management platform through the Uplight Demand Stack: integrating energy efficiency, electrification, rates, and flexibility programs to improve grid resilience, reduce costs, and accelerate decarbonization for both energy providers and their customers.
Uplight serves over 85 energy providers, including 8 of the 10 largest North American utilities, and is a certified B-Corporation whose purpose is to create a more sustainable future using business as a force for good. To learn more about Uplight, visit https://uplight.com/.
About Octopus Energy Group
Octopus Energy is a global clean energy and technology business, driving the affordable, green energy system of the future. Under its own retail brand, Octopus delivers world-class customer service and cutting-edge energy products to 11 million households globally.
The company is driving the electrification of heat and transport through smart tariffs and innovative clean tech, with operations spanning 27 countries and the entire energy value chain. It operates a £7 billion renewables portfolio as well as thriving EV leasing, heat pump, and solar businesses. Backed by pension funds, investors and energy giants, Octopus Energy Group businesses deliver cheaper, greener energy and cutting-edge tech to countries and customers worldwide.
For more information see: www.octopusenergy.group
About Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric is a global energy technology leader, driving efficiency and sustainability by electrifying, automating, and digitalizing industries, businesses, and homes. Its technologies enable buildings, data centers, factories, infrastructure, and grids to operate as open, interconnected ecosystems, enhancing performance, resilience, and sustainability. The portfolio includes intelligent devices, software-defined architectures, AI-powered systems, digital services, and expert advisory. With 160,000 employees and 1 million partners in over 100 countries, Schneider Electric is consistently ranked among the world's most sustainable companies.
Contact
V2 Communications for Uplight
uplight@v2comms.com
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