Plug-in solar panels in London
Three things change depending on where you live: who you notify, how much the panel actually makes, and who has to say yes first. Here are all three for London.
In London you notify UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks · London Power Networks licence area
Your network operator is fixed by your postcode. You cannot choose it and switching electricity supplier does not change it. Great Britain is divided into fourteen licence areas, and London falls in the London Power Networks licence area.
UK Power Networks runs three licence areas. Inner and most of outer London is London Power Networks, but the outer edges tip into the South Eastern or Eastern areas.
G98 notification is not optional and it is not the same thing as telling your supplier. It is a short form, it is free, and the QR code on your kit links straight to the right one. Do it before you connect, not after.
What 800W realistically makes in Greater London
These are irradiance model figures for 800W of panel, not measurements from a roof down the road. Treat them as a ceiling you will fall short of rather than a target.
800 kWh
Per year, south facing, angled properly on a garden frame or flat roof with nothing shading it.
500 kWh
Per year, mounted flat against a south-facing balcony railing. The convenience costs you output.
25–60%
The share you use as it is generated. The rest goes to the grid for nothing. Being home in the day is worth more than a bigger kit.
The urban heat island slightly reduces panel efficiency in high summer, since panels lose output as they get hot. It is a small effect but it is the reason a London balcony can underperform a Kent garden on the same day.
Two panels on one 800VA inverter. The sweet spot for a typical home's background load, and the largest output the rules allow.
Housing stock in London
London is the biggest balcony market in the country by a wide margin and the hardest one to generalise about. The practical split is between purpose-built blocks with a managing agent, where the answer comes down to the lease and the freeholder, and converted period properties, where the outdoor space is often not clearly demised to anyone.
Two London-specific traps. Many newer blocks have balcony rules in the lease that predate plug-in solar and ban anything fixed to the railing outright. And a large number of blocks are still working through external wall remediation, which excludes them from the specification until the work completes.
Permission questions locally go to your London borough, which differs street by street, though for a freestanding panel in a private rear garden you are usually dealing with a lease or a landlord rather than a planning officer.
The national rules apply here as everywhere
800VA cap, one device per household, certified complete kits only, no batteries. Full explainer →
Straight answers
Which DNO do I notify in London?
UK Power Networks, in its London Power Networks licence area. G98 notification is mandatory before you connect a plug-in solar kit, and it goes to your network operator, not your electricity supplier.
How much electricity will a plug-in solar kit make in London?
An 800W array in London models at roughly 800 kWh a year at optimal tilt, or around 500 kWh flat against a vertical balcony rail. You only save money on the share you use as it is generated.
My lease bans anything fixed to the balcony railing. Any way round it?
A freestanding frame that rests on the balcony floor and is not attached to the structure sometimes falls outside those clauses, but that is a reading of your specific lease and not advice we can give you. Ask the managing agent in writing and keep the reply.
Kits that ship to London
Every kit is certified as a complete product, ships free, and comes with the G98 notification link for UK Power Networks. Use UK Power Networks here and it fills in the local operator.
Kits available from 27 August 2026
That is the date SI 2026/848 comes into force and plug-in solar becomes legal to self-install in Great Britain. Certified kits are listed here as soon as they are available.
See all kitsShips to England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland sits outside SI 2026/848, so we cannot supply plug-in kits to NI addresses.