Octopus Energy took on an additional 1.5 million customers from Bulb in December 2022, according to Which?, the consumer organisation1. Citizens Advice lists Bulb as having been taken over by Octopus Energy in December 2022 in its table of suppliers taken over since January 20222. The two accounts agree on the supplier and the month.
The transfer followed Bulb's failure and its placement into a special administration regime, the outcome of which was the sale of its customer book. Which? reported the figure in March 2023, when it published its annual customer survey and assessment of supplier practices1. Which? surveyed 10,197 members of the public in October 2022 and rated 21 energy companies in Great Britain, covering more than 98 per cent of the market1.
Octopus Energy came top of that assessment with a combined score of 78 per cent, incorporating the customer survey and Which?'s assessment of supplier practices, and was named a Which? Recommended Provider for the sixth year in a row1. It was the only provider to receive the award in that year's survey1. Which? said Octopus customers were the most likely to recommend their supplier, with nearly nine in ten, or 87 per cent, saying they would recommend it1.
"Octopus Energy took on an additional 1.5 million customers from Bulb in December last year. Which? will be watching closely to see if the firm can maintain its impressive performance with so many more customers to look after."
The wider picture in the same research was of falling satisfaction. The average customer score was 54 per cent, lower than 59 per cent in January 2022 and 64 per cent in 20211. Utilita came second with a combined score of 67 per cent, ranking higher in the assessment of supplier practices at 75 per cent than in the customer survey at 59 per cent1. Scottish Power came bottom of the assessment of supplier practices with 53 per cent, receiving three points for its complaints performance1. Shell Energy and SSE Energy Services came bottom of the customer survey with overall scores of 48 and 46 per cent respectively1.
A fifth of energy customers in the survey, 20 per cent, had been moved to their current supplier when their former one failed, with Shell Energy customers most likely to have experienced this at 45 per cent1.
Why it matters for households
For the households moved from Bulb, the practical change was a new supplier name on the bill, a new account and a new set of contact details, without any interruption to gas and electricity supply. Citizens Advice states that a household will still have gas and electricity if a supplier goes out of business, is bought by another company or changes its name, and will normally be told when the account is being moved2. The same page advises that where a supplier goes bust, the new supplier can usually be identified within a few days and will contact the household directly2.
The scale of the transfer matters because supplier size shapes service. Which? noted that it would watch whether Octopus could maintain its performance with so many more customers to look after1. For a household, the relevant question after any transfer is whether billing, meter readings and any credit balance follow the account across, and whether the new supplier's tariffs and unit rates match what was expected. Households moved involuntarily are also part of a wider pattern: one in five customers in the survey had arrived at their supplier this way1, a figure that speaks to how much of the market was reshaped by supplier failures rather than by households choosing to switch.
What happens next
No further steps arising from the Bulb transfer are set out in the available material. Which? said it would watch closely whether Octopus Energy could maintain its performance with the larger customer base1. Citizens Advice continues to list later transfers, including Shell Energy to Octopus Energy in December 20232.