THE chief executives of energy giants Octopus and SSE are among the hundreds of people named in this year’s King’s birthday honours.
Greg Jackson of Octopus Energy and Alistair Phillips-Davies of SSE have been made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the energy industry.
Jackson, 53, co-founded Octopus Energy in 2016, and has since grown the company to 7.7 million customers across 18 countries, plus £7 billion of renewable energy assets.
Octopus’ proprietary technology platform, Kraken, is used to run more than 54 million customer accounts worldwide.
It aims to make the energy supply chain more efficient while also transitioning millions of people to clean energy. All of the electricity that Octopus supplies to homes is from renewable sources.
Jackson, who has spoken about having his energy supply cut off while growing up, is considered an industry pioneer for bringing renewable energy to the mass consumer market.
We previously reported how Jackson said that Scotland could have the “cheapest electricity in Europe" by switching to a zonal pricing system, where consumers would pay less for their electricity the closer they live to the infrastructure generating it, such as windfarms.
Phillips-Davies has been at the helm of SSE for a decade. In that time he has committed the company to more than £40bn of investment over the next 10 years towards the transition to net zero.
He oversaw the sale of SSE’s retail energy supply business to Ovo Energy in 2019, and has repositioned the Perth-based firm as one of the most significant electricity infrastructure players.
SSE is developing the world’s largest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank, and says it is building more offshore wind than any other company in the world.
It is also the biggest polluter in Scotland; the energy giant controls Peterhead power station in Aberdeenshire, which has been Scotland’s single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for the past five years.
The site released over 1.35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022.
Phillips-Davies said: “This is a very pleasant surprise, but it really reflects the great team we have here at SSE and the important work they are doing to speed up the clean energy transition that will benefit everyone.”
The honours system recognises and rewards people for their achievements, contributions and service to society.
A CBE is one step below a knighthood, but above an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Jackson declined to comment.
