Octopus Energy confirmed on Friday (30 June) that it has fully migrated 1.5 million customers from failed energy supplier Bulb into its own systems.
In doing so, Octopus Energy has become the UK’s second largest energy supplier with British Gas retaining the top spot. Of those that had been migrated from Bulb’s systems to Octopus’, 75% of customer were satisfied with how the move had been handled.
Alongside this, Octopus confirmed that 94% of Bulb employees had been transitioned over to Octopus Energy.
New customers have been switched to the supplier using its proprietary technology platform Kraken, which is designed to connect the full energy supply chain, from renewable generation through to customer operations and billing.
Kraken now supports operations in Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, servicing over 30 million accounts globally.
In December 2022, it was announced the Octopus’ bid had won out in the acquisition of Bulb, which had been put into Special Administration in November 2021, amid a swathe of supplier collapses as wholesale power prices surged.
However, in November the other energy utilities launched the review, arguing that the sale was secretive, discriminatory, and uncompetitive. The High Court examined their claims over three days at the end of February, released their conclusion determining that the migration could go ahead as planned.
Commenting on the successful migration of Bulb’s customers, Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, said: “This outcome has been the best-case scenario for taxpayers, customers and Bulb’s team after the torrid period of uncertainty and risk prior to Octopus’s acquisition. Thanks to our experience, technology and a phenomenal effort by both teams, we delivered this transfer seamlessly and in record time, with barely any disruption to customers.”
The migration milestone follows the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) stating in its March Outlook that the government is expected to make £1.2 billion in profit from Octopus’s acquisition of Bulb.
Following its collapse, the government provided Bulb’s Special Administration Regime administrators with access to a financing facility to cover the operating losses of the company.
After the confirmation of the acquisition of the supplier by Octopus Energy, a second financing facility was put in place to cover Bulb’s obligations under the sale process. This is mainly the costs of purchasing energy on the wholesale market for the additional customers Octopus now supplies, and was set to run till the end of March 2023.
The OBR’s November forecast suggested these facilities would cost a total of £6.5 billion in capital transfers from government: £2 billion for the first facility and £4.5 billion for the second.
However, both have been revised down, with the first falling to £1.1 billion up to March 2023.