Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Supply definition

What does Supply mean? Supply describes the provision of goods, services or rights by one party to another for consideration. In UK VAT law it is a defined term: Value Added Tax Act 1994, s.5(2)(a) states that “supply includes all forms of supply”, and s.5 distinguishes between a supply of goods and a supply of services, with deeming rules (such as self-supplies). In Ireland, the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 similarly defines supply of goods and supply of services on a broad basis. The concept is central to VAT, determining whether a transaction is taxable, the place and time of supply (tax point), and...

Legal issues in ESCo CHP projects: electricity via DNOs or private wires, heat network regulation, and key contractual risks (payback flow-down, change in law, title transfer)

Published by a LexisNexis Energy expert

Practice notes

What is an Energy Services Company (ESCo)?

There is no single, settled definition of an ESCo, and the term has no special legal status. It is used for organisations involved in generating, distributing and/or supplying energy to end users, as well as those focused on demand management, green retrofits and other Efficiency measures. This Practice Note adopts ‘ESCo’ to mean entities engaged in producing and supplying energy—specifically heat delivered as steam or hot water—rather than Energy efficiency projects.

An ESCo of this kind will often employ co‑generation of heat and electricity via a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Variations include combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP), where absorption chillers utilise part of the heat from the CHP plant to create chilled water for air conditioning or refrigeration; and quadgeneration, which incorporates carbon‑capture technologies. For simplicity, this Practice Note refers to ‘CHP’, as many of the practical issues align across these set‑ups.

For further background and technical information on CHP, see Practice Notes:

Combined heat and power—technology
Biomass combined heat and power—technology
An introduction to Combined Heat and Power (CHP)...

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Sushma Maharaj

Shakespeare Martineau LLP

Sushma is a highly experienced commercial contracts lawyer advising clients in the energy industry on regulatory and market structures, on how current and future energy sector regulation impact them, and on how to frame their contractual arrangements so as to mitigate risks and liabilities within the regulatory regime that applies to them. She advises on the full range of services arrangements including: concession agreements, connection agreements, supply contracts, operation and maintenance arrangements and asset optimisation services agreements, as well as power purchase agreements (including private wire arrangements and sleeved and synthetic PPAs), and other route to market agreements. Her experience includes a nine month secondment to the Northern Ireland electricity regulator, OFREG; a three month secondment to British Energy and a seven month secondment to Smartest Energy....

Web page updated on 27/05/2026

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