What number do I call for help with an energy complaint?

That number is not the first call. A complaint has to be logged with the company itself before the Ombudsman can take it on, and the Ombudsman only accepts a dispute once a final decision or deadlock letter has arrived, or eight weeks have passed without resolution³. Supplier lines differ by company: EDF Energy publishes 03330 069 950⁴.

Complaints about government energy policy go somewhere else entirely. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes 0207 215 5000 as its telephone number, with written complaints to its Enquiry Unit in London⁵.

Who to call: the numbers that matter

The Energy Ombudsman describes itself as an independent service, separate to Ofgem, for problems with an energy supplier, an energy broker, a network operator or a heat network supplier⁷. That scope is what makes a single number work across most domestic disputes, and it is why the same 0330 440 1624 appears on Ofgem's own complaint guidance, on distribution network operator complaint pages and on the Ombudsman's own site⁸.

Before dialling it, the supplier route has to be exhausted. Ofgem's guidance tells households to contact their energy supplier about late, incorrect or missing bills, back billing, being overcharged, a faulty meter, poor customer service, and a refusal to refund credit from an account¹⁰. The Ombudsman's own process page sets the trigger: a final decision or deadlock letter, or eight weeks passing without the complaint being resolved³.

Two practical points make the call shorter. The Ombudsman asks for the account number and the case reference number if there is one, and for the complaint itself it wants to know what the problem is, when it happened, what outcome is wanted, the first date the supplier was contacted, and the letters, emails and phone calls about it¹¹. A household that has kept that record can register a dispute by website, telephone, email or post, free of charge⁶.

Where the complaint is not about a supplier at all, the number changes. Network operators publish their own complaint routes, and the Ombudsman sits above them². Energy Performance Certificate complaints start with the Domestic Energy Assessor and then their certification body, not with the Ombudsman¹³. Feed-in Tariff disputes have their own licensee contacts and dispute resolution route at Ofgem¹⁴. The pattern is consistent: the Ombudsman is the escalation point, not the entry point.

The Energy Ombudsman: 0330 440 1624

The main line is 0330 440 1624, published by the Ombudsman for energy complaints and repeated across independent complaint guidance¹. A textphone on 0330 440 1600 covers callers who need it². Email goes to enquiry@energyombudsman.org⁸.

One conflict is unresolved in the published material: an independent support article carries both 0330 440 1624 and 0845 055 0760 for the same service. The 0330 number is the one carried by the Ombudsman's own pages and by Ofgem's guidance, so it is the figure to treat as current, with the 0845 number noted as a second figure that still appears in circulation.

The service is free. The Ombudsman states that a dispute can be registered via the website, post, email or telephone at no cost¹². Registration online begins by searching for the name of the energy supplier¹⁶. The Ombudsman's process page sets out the eligibility test in its own words:

For a household, the independence question matters as much as the number. The Ombudsman is not the supplier, not the regulator and not a government body, and it is funded through the industry rather than by the complainant. What it does not do is remove the dependence on the supplier's own complaint handling: the eight-week clock, the deadlock letter and the supplier's willingness to engage all sit upstream of the call. A household that wants to understand the escalation route in full, including what a deadlock letter is and what resolution to expect, can follow the wider guides on making an energy complaint and on what a deadlock letter means.

Complaining to your supplier first: the EDF complaints line

Every route to the Ombudsman runs through the supplier first. The Ombudsman's own guidance is blunt about it: the first thing a complainant needs to do is log a dispute with the supplier¹⁷. Ofgem's consumer pages list the problems that belong on that call, from late, incorrect or missing bills through to back billing, being overcharged, a faulty meter, poor customer service and a refusal to refund credit¹⁰.

Supplier numbers are published individually. EDF Energy lists 03330 069 950 as its telephone number⁴. That is a supplier contact line rather than an ombudsman line, and it is the number a household would use to open the complaint that later becomes an Ombudsman case. Other suppliers publish their own numbers, and the general directory of who to ring for each kind of home energy problem sits on who to call for an energy problem.

What to have ready is set out by Smart Energy GB's complaints guidance: the account number, the case reference number if there is one, what the complaint is about, when the problem happened, what outcome is wanted, the first date the supplier was contacted, and the letters, emails and phone calls about it¹¹. That record is what the Ombudsman later asks for, so the supplier call and the Ombudsman call draw on the same file.

The dependence here is real and worth stating plainly. Until the supplier has had its chance, the Ombudsman cannot act, and the household's leverage is the paper trail rather than the phone number. A complaint that is logged, dated and referenced is the one that escalates cleanly at the eight-week mark.

Heat networks: option 3 on the Ombudsman line

Heat network complaints use the same number with a different menu choice: 0330 440 1624, pressing option 3 for Heat Networks when prompted¹⁶. The Ombudsman's own support articles for individual heat networks repeat that instruction, and it appears on the pages for named housing association and management company schemes as well as on the general raise-a-dispute page²⁰.

The scope widened recently. The Ombudsman states that from 1 April 2025 it can help consumers and small businesses resolve heat network disputes²⁶. Eligibility also depends on the provider: heat network customers can access the Ombudsman if their heat network provider is signed up to Heat Trust²⁷. Where a heat network is not registered on the Ombudsman's website, the published instruction is to call 0330 440 1624 to raise the dispute²⁸.

The sequence is the same as for a supplier complaint, with one addition. A heat network customer notifies their heat supplier first and works to resolve the issue, and the heat supplier has eight weeks to resolve the complaint²⁹. The deadlock-or-eight-weeks test applies here too²⁰.

Parliamentary material from 2022 anticipated this arrangement, naming the Energy Ombudsman and Citizens Advice as the frontline organisations to handle escalated consumer complaints³⁰. Ofgem's heat network consumer protection work sets out the same expectation that consumers notify their supplier before the Ombudsman is involved²⁹. For a household on a communal or district heating scheme, the practical effect is that the same 0330 number now covers a service that was previously outside the Ombudsman's reach, but the route in still runs through the heat supplier.

Complaining about energy policy: DESNZ on 0207 215 5000

Complaints about government energy policy are not Ombudsman cases. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes 0207 215 5000 as its telephone number, and written complaints go to the Complaints Manager, Enquiry Unit, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET⁵.

Scheme-specific routes sit alongside that. Boiler Upgrade Scheme policy complaints go to DESNZ at boilerupgradescheme@energysecurity.gov.uk³¹. Green Deal consumer queries go to gdconsumers@energysecurity.gov.uk³². These are policy and scheme administration contacts, not dispute resolution services, and they do not adjudicate on a supplier's handling of an account.

The distinction matters because the two kinds of complaint look similar from a household's point of view and are handled by entirely different bodies. A wrong bill is a supplier matter that escalates to the Ombudsman. A complaint about how a grant scheme is designed or administered is a departmental matter. DESNZ's own public attitudes work tracks awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to its policies, including energy and climate change, which is the kind of policy feedback that flows through the departmental contact rather than the Ombudsman³³.

For households in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Ombudsman and DESNZ numbers are UK-wide, while grant administration and some advice services differ by nation. Local authority and regional advice lines exist separately, and one example in the material is a council energy advice line on 0800 082 2234³⁴. Where a complaint is about a grant rather than a bill, the starting point is the scheme administrator named in the grant paperwork, and the guides on checking which grants you qualify for and applying for a home energy grant set out that route.