I first spotted a headline on Google News about Octopus Energy. I had to investigate further because the story mentioned a new tariff called Octopus Energy Zero Bills, promising customers could pay nothing for energy for 5 years if their houses had solar, a battery, and a heat pump.
As I dug deeper, I learned that the British green energy giant is spinning off Kraken, its AI-powered tech platform. Generating $500 million in annual revenue from global utilities, the Kraken IPO could launch within a year at a stunning $15 billion valuation.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Octopus Energy has been running trials with a Housing Association on 1950s homes, adding external wall insulation, smart controls, and guaranteeing an upgrade rather than simple retrofits, and the Wall Street Journal even picked up on how this side project called Kraken now handles billing and power across the group.
What is the Octopus Energy Zero Bills Tariff
The Zero Bills tariff from Octopus isn’t something homeowners can simply switch to through the Octopus portal like moving from an Agile tariff to something new; instead, it’s a program built into new-build houses, where builders follow a standard house build that already includes solar, batteries, and heat pumps before a single homeowner moves in.
For existing houses, Octopus hopes to later retrofit the same setup, and I suspect it will work a bit like intelligent Octopus Go, where you let Octopus stay in control of your car’s charging and discharging, only this time it would mean Octopus stays controlled over your house’s heating instead.
In fact, the zero bills program can guarantee no energy costs or very low energy costs and energy bills for at least 5 years, sometimes stretching past 10 years, turning a regular home into one of the fully electrified homes with real tariffs and a battery system built right in.
Upgrade to Existing Homes
Octopus calls this work an upgrade rather than a plain retrofit, and the difference matters when you look at how it treats old houses.
Together with a Housing Association, the team has been trialling zero bills ideas on 1950s homes, fitting external wall insulation, solar, a battery, and a heat pump installed as one package, then smart controlling everything to keep costs down.
The goal for these existing houses is the same as for any new build: guaranteeing zero bills for at least 5 years, proving that retrofits can work on older houses just as well as new ones.
New-Build House Value Proposition
If I had a choice between two homes, I’d pick the new-build house with everything already sorted over one that a builder threw up cheaply for maximum profit.
A standard built house, put together purely for profit, rarely comes with solar batteries or a heat pump installed, which means higher energy bills for years to come.
That single fact would shape my decision-making, especially knowing the alternative house could mean no bills at all for 5 years.
Announcement Timing
I checked the date on the original press release and found Octopus announced it back on the 3rd of October, months before it ever reached me.
Somehow it sat quietly for a long time before showing up in my news feed today, which felt strange given how big the news actually was. Nobody around me seemed to be talking about it at all.
Kraken Spin-off & AI Platform
Kraken actually started as Octopus Energy’s first product, a demo client CEO Greg Jackson built just to prove the tech could work, and it now quietly powers the company’s entire growth story a decade later.
In under a decade, Octopus Energy became the UK’s largest energy provider, overtaking British Gas, a company with 200 years of history, largely because of smart AI-driven programs like the agile tariff, which lets customers use electricity when the grid has a surplus, sometimes making energy use free, while collecting huge data streams from home batteries, EV chargers, solar, and other distributed energy resources.
Now, as part of the Octopus Group’s spin-off plan, Kraken is becoming an all-in-one platform that handles billing, meter management, and customer service efficiently for other utilities across the UK and abroad, using AI models, data, and intelligent automation to power a global AI platform for renewables and clean energy management, all while avoiding conflicts of interest and supplying power to 10 million households.
Solar Funding Concepts
Octopus is also working on new Concepts for how to fund solar installations, though full details aren’t public yet.
The team has hinted that more information is coming soon. It sounds like a promising direction worth watching.
Heat Pump Adoption & Timing
Octopus wants to encourage people to think seriously about changing to a heat pump right now.
With grants still available and summer approaching, this feels like the right time to make that move. Many people simply haven’t had a strong enough push to think it through until now.
Octopus’s Own Heat Pump Products
Octopus has been developing its own heat pump range, starting with the Cosy 6 and now the Cosy 9, which has already launched into the market.
The company is looking at other sizes of heat pumps to Target the high temperature retrofit market, moving beyond what people expect. Not every heat pump has to look like a plain white box sitting in your garden.
Customer Decision-Making Journey
For a lot of customers, the real problem isn’t wanting a heat pump; it’s making the actual decision, since a home involves data about the roof, the fabric, and how to finance it all.
Octopus has been focusing on the speed of decision-making, helping people move through that journey faster. Getting to firm decisions quickly seems to matter more than people realise.
EPC & Electrification Advocacy
Octopus wants electrification to move higher up the EPC agenda, since this issue has hindered the industry for a long time.
Some colleagues have been checking whether the SAP data or the RD SAP data actually reflects real homes correctly, gathering hard core data to prove the point to the government. The aim is to stop every home being penalized against older fossil fuel-intensive heating systems.
Branding & Customer Engagement
Octopus works hard to make everything fun, often using bright pink branding that helps customers engage with the company in a way that feels different.
The team shares case studies, works with influencers, and invites people into its Innovation centres and wider community to talk about real projects, such as Octopus Energy zero bills.
With such a large network of engaged customers giving instant feedback, Octopus tries to listen and take forward the ideas with real legs, or tentacles, before rolling them out further.
FAQs
How do Octopus Energy zero bills work?
Octopus Energy Zero Bills program fits new-build houses with solar, batteries, and a heat pump, then guarantees no energy costs for 5 years or more.
Why is the Octopus giving free electricity?
Through Octopus Energy Zero Bills and Agile tariff, Octopus rewards customers with energy use free when the grid has a surplus of renewable power.
What is the Octopus Energy scandal?
There’s no confirmed scandal; most headlines involve billing complaints or confusion around tariffs, not proven wrongdoing by Octopus Energy.
How long does the Octopus Energy Zero Bills tariff last?
It typically guarantees zero bills for 5 years, though some homes may see up to 10 years.
Can existing homeowners get Octopus Zero Bills?
Not yet, it’s currently limited to new-build houses, though Octopus plans to retrofit it to existing houses soon.