It’s official-the next chapter of Uplight is underway with investment closed from Octopus Energy Group and Schneider Electric, and we are welcoming Nick Chaset to lead the charge as CEO of Uplight. Learn more about Nick, what excites him about the energy space and about leading Uplight, and his vision for the energy future. 

What first drew you to the energy space, and what’s kept you there?

My path into energy wasn’t the typical private-sector story. I was the founding CEO of Ava Community Energy, spent time advising the Governor of California on distributed energy resources, and before that served as Chief of Staff to the President of the California Public Utilities Commission. I’ve had a front-row seat to watch our grid go through the most fundamental shift it has seen in decades.

The scale and pace of change required is a challenge, but also an opportunity with rising demand, more electrification, and a grid that needs more than new power plants, poles and wires to keep up. Customer engagement needs to become a real, dependable, utility-scale asset. Taking the participation of millions of households and turning it into measurable, predictable grid capacity that saves energy customers money — that’s the focus that brings me back day after day. 

What excites you the most about being the CEO at Uplight? 

What gets me excited is that we’re not starting from zero here. Utilities across the country rely on Uplight’s solutions every day — this investment lets us take it to the next level with more scale, more precision, and more speed. .

Here’s the bit that really clicked for me: turning disconnected customer programs into measurable, predictable grid capacity. That’s the unlock utilities need right now, as they’re all chasing customer-centric flexibility. Shaping that is the whole reason I’m energized to lead Uplight in this next chapter.

What new outcomes will the Octopus Energy and Schneider Electric investment unlock for North American utilities, energy customers, and the grid? 

This partnership will supercharge Uplight to scale its mission and deliver tangible solutions and tools for utilities. We’re positioned to have real impact. 

Over the next five years we aim to:

• Save $1 billion for U.S. households and businesses through expanded demand-side programs, rebates, and incentives.
• Double flexible capacity, growing our management from 8.5 GW to 17 GW.
• Bring new innovations to the North American market, like Octopus Shift,  a one-stop-shop for customer participation in utility flexibility programs, and Octopus PowerStore, turnkey residential batteries that make storage accessible to a broader range of customers than ever before. 

How will the dual role as CEO of Octopus Energy North America and Uplight complement each other? 

This dual role isn’t an accident. It’s going to add immense value to both organizations. This unique role puts our companies firmly at the intersection of retail electricity and flexibility services. I get to see it from both sides: as a retail energy operator and as a technology provider, which means I’m in the weeds day-to-day on how customer participation actually turns into real grid value. The focus across both roles is the same: scale the strong foundation Uplight and Octopus Energy have already built. That vantage point is what lets me help utilities move faster, treating customer flexibility not as a side project, but as a core pillar of reliability, affordability, and long-term load growth. It’s the bridge between what the grid needs and what customers need at home and in their businesses, and that’s exactly what will enable us to scale Uplight’s Demand Stack® with speed and precision.

Where do you see Uplight in 5 years? The overall energy industry? 

Five years from now, here’s where I want Uplight to be: the company that fundamentally changed how this industry thinks about demand-side resources. No longer are they “ancillary” or a nice-to-have, but they are a core pillar of a modern, reliable, affordable grid. The way we get there is by becoming the central engine of what I’d call a virtuous cycle that involves moving past fragmented programs and into one connected ecosystem that includes energy customers participating through retail flexibility, utilities orchestrating that flexibility through Uplight’s platform, and all of it unlocking access to wholesale markets. Connect those dots, and that’s the future we’re building toward.

We are turning load flexibility into the fastest, cheapest form of capacity available. We are building a system that we can forecast, dispatch, and measure with total confidence—effectively making demand-side flexibility the primary infrastructure for economic development and energy affordability in North America.