Octopus Energy has now fully taken over all 1.3million households from Shell Energy – and took just two months to do it.
The deal officially makes Octopus the second-largest overall energy firm in the country, behind British Gas – but the biggest supplier of electricity.
Octopus finished buying Shell’s retail energy arm in December 2023. The energy giant says with this migration, it beat its previous switching record by four months, which was set when the company took over Bulb’s 1.5 million customers.
Greg Jackson, Octopus founder, said: ‘We are thrilled to have completed the transfer of all Shell Energy customers to Octopus Energy, achieving this milestone in record time.’
Mission accomplished: Octopus has now shifted over all of Shell’s energy customers
There will be no major changes for former Shell customers that have now joined Octopus.
The main difference is around how the two energy firms send out bills.
Customers that do not give Octopus monthly meter readings will get estimated bills every three months, rather than every four weeks as was the case with Shell.
That is because Shell sent out monthly bills to customers regardless of whether they had submitted a meter reading or not.
Octopus has a different policy, so asks that customers submit meter readings every month in order to get a monthly bill based on those readings.
If customers do not give Octopus meter readings for three months then the energy firm will send them a bill after that time based on estimated energy use.
Octopus will keep supplying all former Shell customers with 100 per cent green electricity.
Octopus has also offered over 6,000 of Shell’s most vulnerable customers free, energy-efficient electric blankets to help them cut their energy bills.
The energy firm said that customers who used electric blankets in the winter saved £150 a year on gas and electricity costs.
The average UK gas and electricity bill will be £1,690 a year from 1 April, provided households are on deals limited by the Ofgem price cap.
Regulator Ofgem said gas and electricity bills had fallen to their lowest level in two years, but that these still remained historically very high.
Ofgem next updates its price cap in July 2024.
Octopus says the first Shell customer was transferred over to Octopus just before Christmas to test the process, with the actual migration starting on the 30 January.
It used its own technology platform, Kraken, which it says is the most adept software system in the industry at large-scale customer migrations.
Greg Jackson adds: ‘Thanks to the effectiveness of Kraken and Octopus’ promise of brilliant customer service, we have seamlessly transitioned customers to our platform while ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience.’
Octopus says all 500 customer-facing employees at Shell Energy were offered new roles, with the majority based at Octopus’ new Coventry office.
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