Aug. 11 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s Tesla filed an application to supply electricity to homes and businesses in Britain.
First reported by The Daily Telegraph, the electric vehicle and energy company’s request for an electricity supply license has been noted publicly by Britain’s nonpartisan Office of Gas and Electricity Markets energy regulating agency, or OFGEM.
Tesla Energy Ventures Limited is seeking authorization to supply electricity to “any non-domestic and domestic premises” located within “Great Britain, the territorial sea adjacent to Great Britain and any Renewable Energy Zone,” or areas that fall under the U.K.’s sovereign rights under the Continental Shelf Act of 1964.
The application was formally submitted last month and was signed by Andrew Payne, who runs Tesla’s European energy operations.
Tesla, based in Texas, already has an electric company there that allows its customers to sell excess energy back to the grid. It also features an option that allows owners of its electric vehicles to plug in between midnight and noon and receive unlimited home charging for a fixed monthly fee, as well as a flat rate to charge throughout the day.
The application to provide power in the Britain comes at a time when data published last week by Britain’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows Tesla’s new car sales fell by nearly 60% to 987 units last month, down from 2,462 a year ago.
Should the application be approved, a process that can take as long as nine months, Tesla could become an energy option in the Britain by next year.