{"id":1546270,"date":"2025-07-10T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1546270"},"modified":"2025-07-10T11:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:20:00","slug":"octopus-energy-ceo-slams-gaslighting-in-uk-power-market-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/octopus-energy-ceo-slams-gaslighting-in-uk-power-market-debate\/1546270\/","title":{"rendered":"Octopus Energy CEO Slams “Gaslighting” In UK Power Market Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Octopus Energy CEO Slams “Gaslighting” In UK Power Market Debate<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Via CityAM,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson alleges that established energy companies are using “gaslighting” tactics and aggressive lobbying to maintain the current national electricity pricing model.<\/p>\n

Jackson advocates for zonal pricing, arguing it would save consumers at least \u00a33.7 billion annually and align the UK with other OECD countries, despite claims that his company’s tech arm, Kraken, would benefit from increased complexity.<\/p>\n

The government is expected to decide soon on whether to split up the UK’s power market, with Jackson committed to continuing his fight for zonal pricing regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n

Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson has accused his opponents of \u201cgaslighting\u201d\u00a0ahead of an imminent decision by ministers on whether to split up the UK\u2019s power market.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to draw a line under the zonal pricing debate as early as this week after months of increasingly fierce lobbying from both sides.<\/p>\n

It is understood the government is leaning towards keeping the status-quo in a victory for Jackson\u2019s opposition, which include Scottish renewable power giant SSE, the trade association RenewableUK and key unions.<\/p>\n

In an interview on Friday, the British businessman told\u00a0City AM<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0he hadn\u2019t understood \u201cwhat gaslighting was\u201d until this campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone in Number 10 said to me this was the most aggressive lobbying campaign he had ever seen,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> he said. \u201cHonestly, the reality is consumers don\u2019t have as many lobbyists as incumbents. That\u2019s what you\u2019ve seen here.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Jackson has accused incumbent electricity suppliers of having a \u201cvested interest\u201d in keeping the current system, the national pricing model which keeps electricty rates uniform across the UK. They argue shifting to zonal would threaten infrastructure investment at a crucial time in the race to decarbonise the grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past they\u2019ve always had their own way,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Jackson said. \u201cThey can do it in the backroom and no one\u2019s voicing what this means for consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we win or lose this, what\u2019s been played out in public and the reason it has been so ferocious is that those organisations\u2026 don\u2019t like being challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of the UK\u2019s largest energy supplier though have questioned its own interest in zonal pricing. There is speculation that the firms\u2019 tech arm Kraken,\u00a0currently rumoured to be subject of a \u00a310bn demerger plan,<\/a>\u00a0would benefit from the greater complexity created by a zonal energy market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has been briefed is that Kraken makes money per trade and there would be more trades in a zonal market. It\u2019s fundamentally false,\u201d Jackson responded when questioned on the claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cKraken doesn\u2019t make any money per trade, it is a fixed license fee depending on the number of customers or number of gigawatts per hour, so the market structure makes no difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe reality is we\u2019ve probably lost business on Kraken because some of the incumbents are not so keen on dealing with us due to us challenging them like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The energy tycoon\u2019s opposition has also attacked his access to Whitehall. Official records show Octopus held meetings with energy ministers on 16 occasions in the six months after Labour\u2019s election. He also holds a seat on the board advising Labour on its industrial strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had two meetings with senior ministers on zonal pricing,\u201d Jackson told\u00a0City AM.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u201cI\u2019d like to see the meetings the various lobbyists against zonal have had because my understanding is it is going to be five or ten times more than we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

What next for Octopus Energy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The boss of Octopus is clear he intends to keep banging the drum for zonal pricing, whichever way the government goes.<\/p>\n

He argues taking on the policy would bring the UK in line with other countries while saving at least \u00a33.7bn per year. He has the backing of Ofgem\u2019s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the norm in the OECD, this idea that it is somehow complicated is utter nonsense. If more than half of it in the OECD is done this way, I think Britain could do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a chance that zonal will go through but if it doesn\u2019t, at least we\u2019ve got much closer than anyone has done before to take on those incumbent interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, we will just keep fighting because consumers should not\u00a0be paying supranormal returns to companies with guaranteed incomes. That\u2019s just wrong.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 07\/10\/2025 – 07:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/energy\/octopus-energy-ceo-slams-gaslighting-uk-power-market-debate<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Octopus Energy CEO Slams “Gaslighting” In UK Power Market Debate Via CityAM, Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson alleges that established energy companies are using “gaslighting”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1546271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1546270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6ufQ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/2025-07-07_7xpy8jdjhk-GCZvjb.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1546270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1546271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1546270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1546270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}