Octopus Energy is taking a majority stake in Uplight, a distributed energy resource management company serving 85+ utilities across North America. (Press release)
Uplight works with eight of the biggest U.S. utilities and manages over 8.5 GW of flexible load. The deal pairs Octopus's global flexibility chops with Uplight's extensive utility network and tech for turning DERs into dispatchable capacity. Schneider Electric is investing, too, as a minority partner.
Why now? This is one of the biggest bets yet on the idea that customer participation—managed at scale—can substitute for iron in the ground.