Octopus Energy Group has signed a battery leasing deal with Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC (GRID) that will charge GRID’s batteries when renewable energy is abundant and discharge them when the national grid is under stress.
The deal will connect just over 50% of GRID’s large batteries to Octopus’ technology platform Kraken. Kraken’s AI and machine learning will optimise charging and discharging to help minimise wasteful instances of ‘throwing away’ cheap clean power – such as when wind turbines are forced to stop turning because of too much energy on the national grid.

Launched in 2018, GRID owns around .20% of the UK battery fleet. Octopus will take over half of GRID’s large-scale battery fleet in the UK for the next two years, giving it more than 900MWh of storage – enough to power a million homes for an hour.
This deal follows hot on the heels of Octopus reaching 1GW worth of shiftable load – the largest virtual power plant in the UK – through its electric vehicle (EV) tariff, Intelligent Octopus Go.

Kieron Stopforth, Head of Flexibility at Octopus Energy, said: “Through this landmark deal with Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, we’re not only increasing the size of our virtual power plant to over 1.5GW, we’re also unlocking the power of flexibility, aiming to drive down grid costs.”

Ben Guest, Fund Manager of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc & Managing Director of Gresham House New Energy, said: “These new contracts with Octopus Energy secure revenues which are above those currently being achieved in the national market, demonstrating the value batteries can provide in balancing supply and demand for retail and wholesale market players.”