We often assume that a company claiming to be a supplier of electricity and/or gas is actually legally recognised and authorised as such; but is your electricity supplier actually a legal supplier of electricity? Schedule 6 of The Electricity Act 1989, gives ‘suppliers’ a lot of scary rights over the legal entity or person of Mr E Smith, however, if we do our research we may find that our supplier isn’t a legal supplier after all, and they have been misleading us with false information.
We should always investigate any company coming after us for payment without a signed contract to find out who they really are, and what authorisation they have to be making unlawful claims against us. We can start with Companies House where all companies operating in England and Wales are required to be registered.
Check the bill, statement, or letter the company has sent to you and look for their company number. They often hide it at the bottom in small text as they don’t want you to realise that they are a for-profit corporation.
The Octopus website for members of the public who may want a supplier, says at the bottom of the home page: Octopus Energy Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 09263424. Registered office: UK House, 5th floor, 164-182 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1NN. https://octopus.energy
Now we can check that information on Companies House:
- Go to https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house;
- click on “find company information” which will take you here: https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company;
- then click on the green button “start now” which will take you here https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk;
- type the name of the company or the company number into the box and click on the magnifying glass.
If we search on Octopus Energy and scroll down the page to find the SIC code we can find out what they are registered to do; in this case, they are not listed as suppliers of electricity or gas but ‘traders’.
Octopus Energy Limited is registered at Companies House as a ‘trader’ and not as a supplier therefore this company has no rights under The Electricity Act 1989.
Ask them to provide the evidence that they have a license to supply electricity pursuant to the Electricity Act 1989.
The Electricity Act 1989, c. 29m Part I, Licensing of supply etc. s6
Licences authorising supply, etc.
(1)The Authority may grant any of the following licences—
(d) a licence authorising a person to supply electricity to premises (“a supply licence”) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/29/section/6
If they cannot prove that they are a licensed supplier then they have no rights under Schedule 6 to cut you off. Being cut off is very rare; they are more likely to threaten to fit a prepay meter or a smart meter, but you can decline the offer of both.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/29/schedule/6/enacted
Further investigation will show that Octopus Energy is trading insolvent. You can do a search on Endole which has more info than Companies House https://www.endole.co.uk/.
This website shows that the liabilities, what they owe, are greater than their assets; this means possible insolvency and bankruptcy. https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/search/?q=octopus+energy
A search on the Financial Conduct Authority website shows that Octopus Energy Reference number: 790335 is no longer FCA Registered – “Do not start to do regulated business with an AR that is no longer registered”. https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b00000410gqzAAA
According to the customer website: “Octopus Energy Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 09263424. Registered office: UK House, 5th floor, 164-182 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1NN”. So they are telling us that the customer-facing company is Octopus Energy Limited. https://octopus.energy.
The Octopus Energy Group has a number of companies. The holding company is Octopus Energy Group Limited (09718624), which has the following subsidiaries:
- Octopus Energy Limited (09263424)
- Octopus Energy Services Limited (10434397),
- Octopus Energy Operations Limited (14415312),
- Kraken Technologies Limited (12014731) and
- KrakenFlex Limited (09115827)
As we have seen on the Octopus Energy website, the customer-facing business that is an alleged ‘supplier’ is Octopus Energy Limited. However, this company sometimes claims to be Octopus Energy Services Limited which is in fact an investment company. They probably hide behind this company because it isn’t insolvent. https://octopusinvestments.com
If the company is leading you to believe they are supplying your electricity but they are in fact trading electricity, isn’t that fraud by misrepresentation? This means that if they try to enter your home under The Electricity Act for anything listed under schedule six you can refuse them entry and if they force entry you can sue them in the County Court for damages and fraud.
See this post regarding Haste Limited who are employed by Octopus to harass people who say they’ve changed their meters due to alleged ‘safety’ issues: https://awakenedgb.wordpress.com/2023/10/28/haste-limited-birmingham-magistrates-court-complicit-in-fraud/
Awakened-GB 
I put in a Freedom of Information to the National Grid asking them if they supply every home in the UK with pre paid gas and electricity.
They have come back with the answer “No”. However I suspect that they are dodging the question as the National Grid exists under a group of companies.
Any suggestions to how to correctly phrase the next FOIA would be appreciated.
LikeLike
Do a search on Companies House and endole to see what companies they have registered and what the SIC code describes the nature of their business. National Grid provides the network of pipes and cables so they wouldn’t admit outright to being a supplier. Questions around who puts the electricity and gas into the network? Who buys it? Who owns it?
LikeLike