Tesla can now sell electricity to British homes: Ofgem grants a supply licence

Tesla is one step closer to becoming a British energy supplier. Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, has granted Tesla Energy Ventures Limited a licence to supply electricity to domestic and non-domestic customers in England, Scotland and Wales. The licence took effect on March 11, 2026.

What the licence allows

• Who: both households and businesses across Great Britain.
• What: electricity only. The licence does not cover gas, so Tesla cannot offer the dual fuel deals that most British homes use. Customers who need gas would have to buy it from another supplier.
• Rules: Tesla must follow the standard licence conditions that apply to every supplier, covering billing, consumer protection, financial resilience and fair treatment of customers.

Ofgem took about eight months to decide. Tesla applied in July 2025, in an application signed by Andrew Payne, who runs Tesla's European energy business. According to Electrek, the approval came despite a campaign by the group Best for Britain, through which more than 8,400 people contacted the regulator to oppose it.

What Tesla is likely to offer

Tesla has not announced tariffs, prices or a launch date. The widely expected model is Tesla Electric, the retail service it already runs in Texas. There, customers with a Powerwall home battery are linked into a virtual power plant: the batteries charge when power is cheap and can sell electricity back to the grid when it is scarce, with off-peak rates for charging an electric car.

Tesla is not new to the British grid. It has held an electricity generation licence since June 2020. Its Pillswood Megapack project near Hull, at 196 MWh, was Europe's largest battery when it opened in late 2022. In December 2025 it signed a 1 GWh, 500 MW Megapack project with Matrix Renewables at Eccles in Scotland. For Powerwall owners, it has so far worked through Octopus Energy, with the Tesla Energy Plan.

A crowded market

Britain's household energy market is mature and competitive. Tesla would go up against established suppliers such as Octopus Energy, British Gas and EDF. Octopus already runs its own Powerwall virtual power plant scheme, so Tesla's selling point would have to be tight integration between its batteries, solar, cars and app, rather than the idea itself.

Tesla has not said how many Powerwalls are installed in Britain, which makes the size of its natural customer base hard to judge. Its car sales also give a mixed picture: according to SMMT figures, Tesla registered 2,422 cars in the UK in February 2026, down 37% from 3,852 a year earlier.

Why it matters

A supply licence would let Tesla sell the whole package in Britain: the car, the charger, the home battery and now the electricity. That keeps customers inside its ecosystem and gives Tesla a recurring revenue stream outside car sales.

What to watch next

• An official launch date and the first tariffs, and how they compare with Octopus and others.
• Whether the service is open to all customers or only to owners of Tesla products.
• What happens to the existing Tesla Energy Plan with Octopus.