An Introduction to Electricity Licensing in Great Britain


Produced in partnership with Andreas Gunst of DLA Piper
Practice notes

An Introduction to Electricity Licensing in Great Britain


Produced in partnership with Andreas Gunst of DLA Piper

Practice notes
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Requirement for a Licence

Section 4 of the Electricity Act 1989 (EA 1989) requires entities undertaking certain activities in the electricity sector to hold a licence. These are set out in more detail in the sections below.

EA 1989 provides that it is an offence to undertake licensable activities unless authorised to do so by a licence and that a person guilty of such offence will be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or, on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (ofgem) publishes the licences of all licence holders under EA 1989 in its Electronic Public Register.

Requirement for a Licence—generation

Generation refers to the 'generation' of electricity for the purpose of giving a ‘supply to any premises’ or enabling a supply to be given. This means that there are three key elements required for the requirement for a generation licence to bite.

First, there needs to be ‘generation’. The term ‘generate’ is defined to mean generation ‘at a relevant

Andreas Gunst
Andreas Gunst

DLA Piper

Andreas is an energy, projects and finance practitioner qualified in England & Wales. He has both in-house and private practice experience. His practice areas cover the entire energy value chain, including upstream oil and gas exploration, production, transportation and trading (both OTC and exchange); electricity generation projects from conventional and renewable energy sources; electricity transmission, distribution, trading (both OTC and exchange) and supply; and emission reduction projects and environmental securities, allowance and certificate trading as well as related regulatory advice.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Great Britain definition
What does Great Britain mean?

A geographical term generally referring to the mainland nations of the UK and certain smaller islands.

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