Alexa offers energetic assistance in link-up with Octopus Energy

Octopus Energy has teamed up with Amazon to become the first energy company providing real-time energy pricing using voice automation with Alexa.

The energy provider, which has 600,000 customers throughout the UK, is pioneering the drive toward greener and cheaper energy through its Agile Octopus tariff, allowing customers to use electricity when it is cheapest to do so.

The smart time-of-use tariff lets consumers know when the cheapest time to use the dishwasher, or charge up their electric car is – because renewable energy is cheaper when there is more sun or wind – and now they can access that information without lifting a finger, through Amazon's virtual assistant.

“We're increasingly seeing voice control is at the heart of the smart home and the easier we make all of this for people, the more they will be able to effortlessly adopt cheaper, greener energy,” Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson told Morning Wire

“What we can now do with Alexa is: 'Alexa, let me know when electricity is cheapest', and it will tell you 'it's cheapest at 19:00', 'Okay, fantastic, I’ll do my dishwasher at 19:30 not 18:00, or your electric car, 'I'll charge the car at 3 in the morning'.

“You don't need to open an app, you don't need to look at a computer or read an email, Alexa will tell you when to do it and can even do it for you.”

At just 34 months old the firm is heading up the push toward renewable energy in a hugely competitive UK market, while the use of smart home technology is helping to encourage the transition to renewable energy by making it a cost-saving process too.

Octopus has already integrated its agile tariff with the If This Then That (IFTTT) platform, which allows customers to link devices and apps to automate energy usage. The initiative with Alexa is the next step in the development of the smart home.

“It's the only dynamic energy tariff available on Alexa and we've been working with Amazon to go beyond just giving you information, to the point where you will be able to control when things, like your electric car, charges,” Jackson says.

“In a decades time everyone is going to be using dynamic energy and we're paving the way,” he added. “We've already had interest from seven countries about this technology and that's thanks to the UK's competitive energy market which is spawning a new generation of innovation.”