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Octopus Energy has acquired artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities from recently-failed supplier Usio Energy.
The supplier placed an undisclosed bid with Usio’s administrators and will use the newly acquired technology to create half-hourly forecasts for customers’ individual electricity use.
Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, said the company had taken an “in-depth look” at what Usio had built and identified smart decisions had been made during the construction of the platform.
He also said with more volatile generation it becomes “ever-more important” to match complex consumption patterns against complex generation.
The London-based supplier Usio used artificial intelligence from customers’ smart meters to supply customers with green energy at low prices.
Speaking to Utility Week Jackson said: “When we became aware that First Utility had only acquired the customers, we approached the administrators and decided to have a close look at the technology the company had built.
“We were impressed their small team of machine learning experts had built a system to create half hourly forecasts for individual customers’ electricity consumption which is going to be a hugely important capability as we move to an ever-smarter grid.”
The chief executive added that Octopus had taken on the technology staff from Usio and the company is now incorporating the technology into Octopus’ systems.
He added: “I think with machine learning and AI it is something that is never finished but it will keep getting better and better.
“We are already able to deploy some of that forecasting capability on our customer base and now we are able to keep using machine learning to advance other areas of the business as well – things like financial forecasting and even analysing our customer operation performance.”
Usio ceased to trade in October this year. First Utility was announced as the supplier of last resort to take on the failed supplier’s 7,000 domestic customers.
Later that month Snowdrop Energy transferred its customers to fellow Sheffield-based energy supplier Nabuh Energy.
Other suppliers to have failed in the latter half of the year include Extra Energy and Spark Energy, which has since been acquired by Ovo.
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