The intern diaries: our 2022 Octopus Power Equality Internship

The Internships: Operations

This Internship was particularly created to provide every intern a real perception into an operations position on the inexperienced vitality firm of the longer term.

Beneath Rosemary, Juanita and John give their detailed overview of the expertise.

Hey! I’m Rosemary, a Black, British-born Nigerian. As a part of my 9-week internship with Octopus Power, I’ve been on operations as a coaching vitality specialist, together with 2 different fantastic interns Juanita Benson and John Akinsete. I bought accepted for this internship throughout the identical week that I bought my ultimate outcomes for the tip of my diploma! To say that I used to be happy with each outcomes can be an understatement. Having studied Occupational Psychology as considered one of my ultimate modules at college, I used to be fairly wanting to get caught into the true world of how an organization operates and features from inside. Little did I do know that Octopus Power can be such an important firm for me to study this and extra!

While I used to be getting ready to use for this position at OE, I came upon that my brother had really converted to OE from EON inside the final yr. My first query for him was what made him make the swap, and to place it merely, his reply was Octopus’ customer support, adopted by their inexpensive tariffs on supply. This instantly made me intrigued on how their firm is ready to appeal to and preserve their clients via this ‘outrageously excellent customer support’. Not solely this, however I used to be additionally actually to study extra about renewable vitality, as I had solely ever heard of this manner again in my science classes at college!

I selected to enterprise into the Operations sector of Octopus Power because it slot in with my earlier expertise at college and in jobs like retail and hospitality. College taught me the best way to work as a group, and to recuperate from challenges which positively constructed up my resilience, having accomplished a level throughout a pandemic. Fortunately, this got here in useful working in operations and coping with a wide range of difficult buyer accounts. Working as a gross sales assistant in retail shops and as a bartender inside hospitality taught me the significance of customer support and catering to buyer’s wants. Equally, working at Octopus over the previous couple of weeks has proven me having an open thoughts is extremely helpful as issues are at all times altering with the corporate, and there may be worth in being versatile and going the additional mile to make sure clients are glad.

We had the superb probability to talk to the CEO and CTO of Octopus Power, Greg Jackson and James Eddison. These have been the highlights of my internship, as we have been really in a position to speak to the sensible minds behind the creation of the corporate. They have been each very inspirational and passionate in regards to the push for inexperienced vitality and their sole give attention to serving to clients entry inexpensive vitality.

I’m glad that I used to be in a position to practice alongside Juanita and John within the Manchester workplace, as we might share our concepts collectively and work alongside one another, which made the method extra satisfying. We realized about billing, fixing account points and emailing clients immediately which was definitely a problem! We actually bought caught in with what Operations vitality specialists do every day. At occasions, it was overwhelming navigating the easiest way to take care of points, particularly when working for an organization who additionally goals to ship outrageously good customer support. However I learnt tons and it was tremendous comforting realizing that we had Sai Cham, Micah Maynard, Tomilola Jonah and Safiyah Iqbal as our intern site-leads who we might at all times go to for assist. There was additionally no higher feeling than with the ability to assist a weak buyer, given the vitality crises that we’re all presently impacted by.

On week 4 of the internship, all the interns have been handled to a visit to Slough to go to the Analysis & Improvement division! It was a superb alternative to study extra about every part from warmth pumps to electrical autos and decarbonising.

Our ultimate 3 weeks of the internship have been centered on a undertaking that we might finally current to the opposite interns, our group leaders and senior administration at Octopus, on our ultimate day of the internship. The query we got for our undertaking being in OP’s was “How can Octopus Power present sustainable and efficient assist to the weak within the October value rise?”. In order a gaggle, after discussions and in-depth analysis, we got here up with 3 ways to handle this: via serving to weak clients, workers, while additionally addressing the vitality crises as an entire. I actually loved the deliberation and significant evaluations that got here with utilizing innovation to determine sustainable and compassionate methods to assist weak people. I used to be stunned to learn the way a lot Octopus are already engaged on varied methods to assist their workers in the course of the October rise, as so a lot of my concepts have been already being applied. I suppose this simply exhibits how nice of a group is absolutely constructed into Octopus.

Upon finishing this internship and my diploma, I plan to take a while to discover what variations of labor the world has to supply! What I do know for certain is that I’ll cherish and tackle with me wherever I am going the significance of the drive for renewable vitality, in addition to the tradition of fairness and accountability. To not point out the superior friendships I’ve made alongside the best way. I owe this completely to Octopus Power!

The primary factor I’ve loved about this internship is the tradition at Octopus. This internship has proven me that workplace environments will be informal and relaxed, while extremely productive. It has additionally proven me what particular rules I worth in a piece setting, that are values I’ll carry ahead. I’ve additionally loved assembly so many new folks, from the opposite interns to members of the senior administration group. I really feel extraordinarily fortunate to have been in a position to kind so many new friendships and connections, all which made this internship each enjoyable and useful to my skilled improvement.

Octopus has a really sturdy model, and a repute for exceptionally nice customer support. Dwelling as much as these expectations was fairly daunting at first, but it surely was an important expertise tackling this work with the opposite interns. Moreover, after we started the analysis undertaking, we actually wished to make solutions that the corporate would have the ability to use, even after the internship was carried out. We labored actually onerous in the course of the analysis course of, and I feel we achieved these goals!

The largest shock was studying in regards to the limitations that vitality suppliers face with implementing modern concepts for renewable vitality. Octopus is a extremely modern place, so the restrictions on what they will do to rework the vitality business was fairly irritating. I seen this as nicely when finishing up the analysis, we had actually good concepts however the best way the vitality business is about up, we simply couldn’t.

I actually loved this internship and I’m wanting ahead to utilising the talents I’ve acquired at Octopus in my future profession. I additionally hope to take care of all the brand new friendships I’ve made via the internship!

This internship was a real eye-opener, because it gave me a front-row view to expertise first-hand what it takes to be a progressive firm. From my first day within the London workplace to getting embedded in an OPs group in Manchester by the tip of our coaching, everybody we met was prepared to assist. No request for assist appeared too massive or too small, as virtually everybody understood what it should really feel like being a beginner with that impostor syndrome looming giant in your shoulders. My teammates and group chief have been a pleasure to work with all through my time on the group. On days once I had no clue the best way to take care of a buyer request and harassed about having to make clear issues I wasn’t certain about, simply realizing they have been there if I wanted them was a continuing reminder that almost all organisations do issues backwards. I’ve loved my time right here at Octopus Power however leaving offers me nervousness as a result of I want extra firms would undertake the Octopus mannequin of leveraging strengths to enhance weaknesses amongst the varied groups.

At first, not realizing sufficient to behave on clients’ requests via emails was difficult, in addition to navigating a brand new working setting and attempting to indicate your teammates you deserve the chance. Nevertheless, in hindsight, this could not have been the case, as I shortly realized via my teammates and our Manchester intern website lead, Micah, that I’m trusted and succesful therefore my being right here. Figuring out what I do know now in regards to the accessible assist, I shouldn’t have wasted vitality stressing about my skill to deal with requests however be snug realizing that assist is obtainable if I ever want it.

The extent of information and understanding proven by the varied groups and teammates stunned me quite a bit, as I might see they’ve benefitted and grown as people and a collective by sharing data freely and extensively throughout the organisation. If there may be something I’d take out from this expertise, it might be to deal with folks like they’re adults and belief they may ask for assist when the necessity arises.

I’m grateful for this internship and it has given me an important base to begin from, particularly contemplating I’m off to begin my placement in Audit and Assurance on the twelfth of September 2022. My objectives for subsequent yr are to finish my placement yr, study as a lot as doable and hopefully impress sufficient folks to have varied choices for a everlasting job once I graduate.  I’m glad I took the initiative to use when the chance offered itself, and I’ll fortunately apply for a job right here if the chance ever presents itself once more. 

Massive up Octopus and extra Love and Energy to this organisation and its folks!

The Internships: Knowledge

This 9 week, in depth expertise was rigorously designed to offer a deep perception into the world of knowledge in Power.

Beneath Aduwemi and Sally share their expertise and particulars of the initiatives they labored on.

I used to be immediately on this internship as I’m learning Laptop Science and knowledge evaluation is an space I’ve wished to study extra about. I additionally knew about Octopus’ glorious repute plus stellar evaluations of individuals’s expertise working for the corporate.

The possibility to work on the firm and study extra about knowledge, vitality and renewables appeared like an unbelievable alternative.

A typical day inside the internship typically started with a chat from folks from various components of the enterprise to study extra about how a piece of the corporate operates. My favorite was an Power Procurement chat with Man, the place we learnt and mentioned how buyer demand and different components affect shopping for vitality out there. This enabled me to grasp the work of the Knowledge Crew and the way Octopus Power manages danger. As well as, I used to be amazed by how folks all through the corporate really cared in regards to the clients and their greatest pursuits, which was very refreshing.

After the varied fascinating talks, I normally started engaged on a selected activity that day. An instance of this was once I analysed the client breakdown of Octopus Power within the UK. This helped us study which areas have fewer clients and take into consideration the best way to rectify this.

I loved the independence of a activity like this and the power to make use of my very own strategies. Afterwards, I’d endure paired coaching with Joanna to debate any points I could also be having or any breakthroughs I had made that day. Once more, this was a brand new expertise, permitting me to mirror on my day and decide up a wealth of insights and expertise.

All through the internship, I used to be lucky sufficient to shadow completely different group members to realize a deeper perception into what every position in a Knowledge group does. On the finish of every day, I’d spend a while enhancing my technical expertise with the Knowledge platforms. This gave me a number of confidence within the progress I’d been making whereas interning. I additionally acquired a number of assist as everybody was extremely welcoming and I felt built-in inside the group virtually immediately. The primary classes I realized throughout this course of have been to be assured and to ask for assist when struggling. As once I finally did, the assist and reassurance I acquired have been tremendously useful.

I’m learning electronics and pc engineering on the College of Kent, and I utilized to this internship at Octopus because it was an incredible alternative. I’ve at all times cared about inexperienced vitality and seeing the raving evaluations from present and previous workers and the superb unconventional software course of, I used to be offered.

I used to be paired with a mentor, Caspart on my first day and spent my internship studying immediately from his experience. What I cherished about this was seeing the best way my mentor processed data, and getting the prospect to work collectively to discover a resolution when there are errors or points. I used to be given a number of accountability with modifying work and was handed my very personal undertaking to finish in the course of the internship. This was thrilling and I used to be given ample time to finish it so I by no means felt rushed, and I even bought to decide on to tackle a mess of different duties. I did face some challenges, and I’m used to being very impartial however I learnt that everybody round is right here to assist. Some folks had handled my precise technical points prior to now so it was straightforward, handy and an important expertise studying immediately from folks with a great deal of expertise. It was additionally superb to work in an expert setting the place folks nonetheless get to get pleasure from their work and colleagues.

My undertaking for this internship was to create a Grafana Dashboard for the info group. The dashboard would show clear, clear metrics from Airflow: which is an integral part of Octopus’ knowledge engineering pipelines, which they use to run many duties from reporting to data-lake ingestion to mannequin constructing. This dashboard would present key high-level metrics and stats comparable to:

• Common period of every DAG (over acceptable time intervals)
• Failure fee of every DAG (over acceptable time intervals)
• Failure fee of airflow as an entire (over acceptable time intervals)
• Variety of duties run per day
• Complete Profitable Duties / Complete Failed Duties
• High 10 most useful resource intensive DAGs (over acceptable time intervals)

This data was to assist develop the platform shortly/effectively throughout the globe. To get an concept of how airflow is performing, in addition to how adjustments to the pipeline have an effect on efficiency, we have to see how duties/dags are performing presently. This undertaking included downloading and putting in a number of instruments, studying to push and merge pull requests, utilizing git, accessing clusters, deploying purposes, modifying deployments, after which creating the dashboard. I had nice assist from my mentor: Caspar, and was glad to get this chance as the info group would discover my dashboard very helpful, and having my dashboard displayed for everybody to see within the workplace is superb!

The Internships: Octopus Power Technology.

Octopus Power Technology (OEGEN) is a fund administration firm with an understanding for the affect of sustainable funding. Inside this firm, quite a lot of sensible folks work collectively to contribute to creating a distinction by investing and interesting with renewable vitality sources.

This yr 6 interns, Saron, Javel, Divine, Ruvarashe, Nana and Elijah joined the OEGEN group to work alongside particular groups.

Hear all in regards to the expertise, within the interns personal phrases.

Initially of the internship, we engaged in group periods which coated all sectors of what and the way OEGEN operates. This additionally allowed us to study quite a bit about different components of the Octopus umbrella; giving us perception into the vitality sector, gross sales, operations and Kraken tech.

After that, every of us got every day particular person initiatives set out by our groups. We additionally spent a while attending to know the opposite interns inside our personal mini catch ups which helped us to take care of the optimistic tradition shock generated by entering into Octopus.

As a gaggle we realized to navigate our respective roles inside the group, taking data, each new and outdated – to work on an array of initiatives. Now we have collectively realized quite a bit in regards to the vitality business and renewable vitality markets in our time at Octopus via talks, workshops and day journeys. For lots of us, this internship opened our eyes to a special kind of company way of life, throwing our expectations of the previous 9 weeks out of the window.

We each joined the internship having completed our third yr of college and have been searching for a possibility to study throughout our summer season break. We stumbled throughout the Octopus Power Equality Internship and thought it might be fascinating however didn’t know precisely what we had signed ourselves as much as.

Over the course of 9 weeks, now we have been launched to the world of vitality via our group, who work on funding offers the world over. Basically, the group purchases renewable property throughout Europe and different OECD nations. This summer season we assisted the Offers group in buying a wind farm in Germany, carried out vitality market analysis, learnt about completely different sources of vitality and created an vitality transition pitch deck. We discovered it actually fascinating navigating this, particularly in the course of the center of an vitality disaster, which actually demonstrated that investing in renewables is important for our future.

We additionally made an effort to fulfill as many individuals throughout the enterprise as doable to find out how our position suits into the broader Octopus umbrella. A few of our favorite talks embody a Bioenergy speak by Mike from the Asset Administration Crew and a knowledge & finance SQL class with Calum. These actually helped us achieve an understanding of how wide-ranging and versatile the work at Octopus is.

I actually cherished the chance to immerse myself within the work the Asset Administration group was doing and I realized quite a bit about property, investments and upkeep. I used to be given duties which contributed to the groups’ efforts to handle the present property owned by the corporate, so I actually felt like a part of the group.

I spent my time creating an excel spreadsheet figuring out the important thing parts of the operations and upkeep contracts which enabled me to familiarise myself with contracts in addition to perceive what the operations and upkeep contractors do. I additionally bought an opportunity to take a look at our asset contracts to grasp the authorized facet and find out how the contents could fluctuate relying on the kind of deal. This was tremendous intriguing to me as I used to be in a position to study extra in regards to the portfolio held by OEGEN.

ESG is one thing I knew little about previous to my coming into this position however as a consequence of my curiosity in sustainability and coverage, I felt that I might study quite a bit. The primary intention of the position is to bolster sustainable measures and guarantee company social accountability is taken within the work that OEGEN are doing. My time at Octopus has taught me quite a bit in regards to the obligations of the position, and the affect of the work OEGEN is doing to make sure they ship on the promise of sustainability.

Inside my time at Octopus, I’ve labored on a number of initiatives. One factor I actually loved was making a foundational company-wide report which entailed a number of analysis in addition to studying up on every part that Octopus Renewables is doing. I appreciated main on this and located it fascinating to talk to all of the individuals who I had arrange conferences with to search out out extra about features of the corporate. One other undertaking I used to be fortunate sufficient to work on was main analysis on gas poverty charities for OEGEN to donate to. It was superb to study how this problem is being labored in the direction of by charities and the federal government, but it surely was bitter-sweet to need to make a proposal for who to donate to.

I additionally assisted in updating the ESG Matrix which is an inside software, created to make sure sustainable measures are in place for all funding offers. While this was probably the most difficult of all my initiatives, it pushed me to work on my Excel expertise, studying new formulation and features to make the desk do what was required. While these are only some of the duties I accomplished, they reveal the wide range of focal factors that this position has to supply.

There’s additionally a extremely nice working setting the place you’re feeling extra built-in inside the enterprise versus feeling like you’re imposing.

I used to be drawn to this position due to its focus round folks. Whether or not its market analysis, brainstorming audacious new concepts or making a video selling wind generators, there has at all times been a give attention to the way it will have an effect on folks. That is additionally one of many advantages of working at Octopus because the ethos of the corporate is to not solely make vitality greener, however higher for folks all over the world. Regardless of its fast development, it has not misplaced its customer-centric strategy to the way it operates – that’s why I wished to do that internship.

The Innovation group, broadly talking, offers with decentralising vitality while additionally decreasing its price. Inventive concepts are always being dropped at life within the group. Essentially the most outstanding instance of that is the Fan Membership, which supplies these dwelling near wind generators entry to reductions on their vitality payments when the wind is blowing. The group actively participates in participating the group, educating folks on the capabilities of renewables. For instance, taking a visit to an area faculty and chatting with the pupils about renewables and the advantages that come up from the brand new developments of their space and the advantages to the broader world.

I additionally bought to spend time and study from the Octopus Power for Enterprise group, who work with the business-owning clients of Octopus. The work they do is important as small and medium companies aren’t protected by value caps and are particularly weak to the vitality disaster. Now we have additionally carried out some work on partnerships with different sustainability centered firms, collaborating to speed up the transition to a greener world. Working with each groups has been extraordinarily rewarding.

The internship has been difficult at occasions, with attempting to soak up a lot data in a brief period of time, while additionally attempting to provide good high quality work. Nevertheless, assist has at all times been at hand whether or not or not it’s somebody from the group or one of many different interns. The way in which during which everybody works with open collaboration and a willingness to assist in any approach doable offers a platform for nice work.

Octopus has a robust suggestions tradition and while this will likely appear daunting, it lets you learn to do higher in every part that you simply do. We’ve all grown at a fee which was a lot quicker than we anticipated, permitting us to attain issues we could not have been in a position to at first of our internship.

This internship has allowed me to develop a better understanding of the world of finance and accounts in addition to study the sensible expertise wanted for a place inside a company finance group. I spent my time getting ready over 20 accounts to be audited by setting up 3 monetary statements for every account. That is one thing I’m new to and now really feel extraordinarily assured doing. I really feel it’s a worthwhile ability which can help me on my journey into finance.

I used to be additionally requested to current the monetary efficiency evaluation for considered one of our portfolios to the senior administration inside the buyer board. While that is one thing I had not anticipated to be entrusted with as an intern; it was a pleasure to current on this matter. As an intern, you’re given a number of independence and handled as part of the group. Because of this you’re trusted to steer by yourself workload with out at all times being supervised. While this will likely appear scary at first sight, it lets you carry concepts to the desk and have a go at utilizing and enhancing your data and ability set. Having independence additionally means you possibly can tailor your expertise as an intern as mentors are pleased to assist you in focusing in your pursuits.

The Internships: Tech

This 9 week, in depth expertise was rigorously designed to offer a deep perception into the world of knowledge in Power.

My title is Sinead and I’m a second yr scholar learning Laptop Science, additionally tutoring programming languages to kids aged from 5+. I selected to do a Backend Improvement internship with Octopus Power over the summer season and it was an expertise I’ll at all times be pleased about. I selected to use as I’ve at all times wished to enter Software program Improvement due to my ardour for programming and inventive thoughts, so I felt that selection was greatest fitted to me.

On a mean day within the firm as an intern, we might have a stand-up assembly with our group and attend workshops/talks deliberate for us. These workshops/talks have been very useful as they allowed us to fulfill completely different folks inside the firm and get additional perception into issues taking place inside the firm within the completely different groups.

On a Friday afternoon, we might attend household dinners which have been one thing I didn’t anticipate when becoming a member of the corporate but it surely was very fascinating as Octopus Power places of work from all over the world would meet up on Zoom to debate fascinating and necessary subjects. The interns went on two subject journeys; Slough to see what initiatives they have been engaged on and study warmth pumps and Peterborough to study wind generators. This was a pleasant break free from being contained in the workplace all day and an opportunity to spend time with the opposite interns. In direction of the tip of the internship we needed to current what we have been engaged on to folks inside the firm and it was a worthwhile but horrifying expertise. It was a pleasure with the ability to work on options that have been going for use by the ops group because it was one thing to indicate for while being at Octopus Power.

In the course of the internship, I confronted fairly a couple of challenges like making use of an excessive amount of strain on myself and worrying about deadlines. It was pure for me to fret about not realizing sufficient however that is once I realised that they’re there to assist us and it takes time to select issues up. Additionally, one factor I struggled with was my lack of awareness within the vitality business when working for an vitality firm however attending the workshops all through the internship helped me really feel extra snug. One factor I appreciated is the respect and belief that they’ve for the staff. As you’re accountable for the work you’re doing, working by myself duties that may make some adjustments within the firm assist website made me really feel extra impartial and that was one thing I didn’t anticipate as an intern.

My objective within the close to future is to efficiently apply for a placement job for my third yr in college, as I’m attempting to obtain as a lot expertise as I can earlier than going straight into the working world.