Kraken and Octopus Energy: the retail-integrated VPP

Most VPP software sits beside a utility’s billing system. Kraken replaces it: the same platform holds the customer account, the meter data and the device connection. Octopus Energy uses Kraken’s customer, field and residential flexibility products together, which is how it can price a tariff around a device it also controls (Kraken).

That design shows up in two ways. Day to day, Intelligent Octopus-style tariffs let the retailer charge an EV or battery when power is cheap and clean, in exchange for a lower rate. On top of that, the fleet can answer events and market calls. Kraken says its residential fleet saves consumers more than $200 million a year by charging and heating when energy is cheapest, a gross bill saving rather than net profit to anyone (Kraken).

The aggregator, not the household, makes the dispatch decision. Customers set constraints such as a ready-by time for an EV or a minimum battery reserve; the software decides when each device runs within those limits.

Octopus has sold power in Germany since 2020 and passed one million customers there in September 2025 (Windkraft-Journal). Its most instructive German project is OctoFlexBW with TransnetBW, one of the country’s four transmission system operators. When TransnetBW forecasts a bottleneck, its DA/RE platform sends a signal to Kraken, which moves EV charging out of the constrained hour. The pilot started in May 2024 with about 100 EVs (e-mobil BW; TransnetBW) and has since used more than 700 household EVs for redispatch. The cars do not export power; they simply charge at a different time (ingenieur.de).

Other German pieces fill out the picture. Octopus offers small-scale aggregation of customer solar through Lumenaza, which runs the VPP and market communication on Octopus’s behalf (Lumenaza). Its Tesla Powerwall tariff, now nationwide, discharges enrolled batteries down to a customer-set reserve when the grid is short and recharges them when wind and solar are plentiful (Edison). A vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tariff with Ford was slated to start in summer 2026 (Erneuerbare Energien). And in May 2026, Hanover utility enercity chose Kraken to build a VPP across grid-scale batteries, combined heat and power and power-to-heat, trading in wholesale and balancing markets (Kraken).

For U.S. readers, OctoFlexBW is the closest analog to a non-wires alternative: flexibility bought for a specific place and hour on the grid, not just for the system peak. That locational value is what most U.S. demand response programs still leave on the table.

In December 2020, Tokyo Gas took a 9.7% stake in Octopus for $200 million and formed TG Octopus Energy, a 30:70 joint venture, to sell renewable electricity in Japan (Octopus Energy). In 2023, Tokyo Gas licensed Kraken to manage about 3 million of its electricity customers, with the option of migrating 10 million gas accounts later (Octopus Energy), and adopted KrakenFlex for distributed energy resources (Tokyo Gas). Kraken says the joint venture launched a time-of-use tariff and integrated with all 10 of Japan’s transmission system operators within six months (Kraken).

The timing matters. Japan opened its balancing market to household-level resources, including home batteries, in April 2026, and gas and power companies are now signing up customer batteries (OilPrice.com). A licensee that already runs billing and device control on one platform can move into that market faster than one stitching systems together.

In Texas, where customers choose their retailer, Octopus sells power directly. It partnered with Enphase in 2023 to bid home batteries into ERCOT ancillary service markets through Kraken (Solar Power World). Its solar buyback pays real-time wholesale rates; in one summer period participants exported 180,000 kWh and earned $36,000, about 20 cents per kWh on average (Octopus Energy U.S.). A newer offer pairs a three-year fixed rate with a leased 30 kWh Lunar battery for $45 a month and automatic VPP participation (Heatmap).

Outside Texas, the pitch to regulated utilities is “design, build, transfer”: Octopus builds a flexibility program on Kraken, runs it, then hands it to the utility (Latitude Media). Kraken licensees include National Grid for its 6.5 million customers in New York and Massachusetts (Latitude Media), Canada’s Saint John Energy, a United Illuminating pilot in Connecticut (Latitude Media) and Tenaska Power Services for Texas battery sites (Octopus Energy).

The biggest U.S. move came from Octopus Energy Group, not Kraken: it closed a majority investment in Uplight on September 1, 2026, adding a platform that manages 8.5 GW of flexible load across more than 85 utilities (Uplight via Utility Dive). See the Uplight profile.