Octopus Energy to pay nearly £3 billion to UK government for BulbOctopus Energy to pay nearly £3 billion to UK government for Bulb

Octopus Energy is reportedly set to pay nearly £3 billion to the UK government to refund what taxpayers paid to rescue failed energy supplier Bulb.

According to the BBC and Financial Times, the Treasury will recoup almost all the cost of temporarily nationalising Bulb in November 2021, when it went into special administration. This was amid a swathe of supplier collapses as wholesale power prices surged.

The Public Accounts Committee stated in November that it was concerned about recovering the £3 billion committed to funding Bulb. Specifically, the organisation estimated that £2.96 billion of taxpayer funds could be recovered from Octopus, but this would incur a shortfall of £246 million to be borne by taxpayers.

Octopus stated that it has already started paying the £3 billion sum but expects this to be completed in September 2024.

The integration of Bulb

In December 2022, it was announced that Octopus’ bid had won out in the acquisition of Bulb, leading to the migration of 1.5 million customers in addition to 94% of employees. Thanks to the completion of the migration on 30 June 2023, Octopus was officially recognised as the UK’s largest electricity supplier by Ofgem this year, with a market share of 22%.

Bulb's acquisition was implemented via the Energy Transfer Scheme (ETS), which saves taxpayers millions of pounds by restoring the collapsed supplier to private ownership, Octopus said.

Octopus Energy moves into US renewables market

Last week (19 June), Octopus revealed that it made its first investment into the US renewables market with the acquisition of two solar farms with a combined capacity of 100MW in Ohio and Pennsylvania. With this acquisition, Octopus now manages a global solar portfolio of 2GW, alongside 1.7GW of other green energy projects around the world.

Octopus Energy has made other green energy deals in North America, having recently made an investment into Ocergy, a US-headquartered technology company dedicated to developing floating foundations for offshore wind farms.