Which network operator do I notify?
Who do you notify? Check your postcode.
Before you connect a plug-in solar kit you must notify your network operator under G98. Which one depends on where you live, and most people have no idea who theirs is.
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Your result will appear here.
That is the notification side sorted. If you have not chosen a kit yet, ours are certified complete kits built for the British rules.
A plug-in kit is not the right answer at this property. The full rules explain which exclusion applies and why.
Matched on the letters of your postcode. Operator boundaries do not follow postcode boundaries exactly, so a few areas sit across two, and where that applies we say so above. Your electricity bill also names your operator.
What you are doing, and why
Your distribution network operator is the company that owns the electricity cables running into your street. You have to tell them before you connect a plug-in solar kit. There are fourteen of them across Great Britain, and which one you have depends entirely on where you live.
The checker at the top of this page gives you yours. What follows is the explanation behind it: what you are actually doing, why it matters and what to have to hand.
Last checked 16 October 2026.
Your network operator is not your energy supplier
This is where almost everybody goes wrong, and it is worth being clear about before you fill anything in.
Your supplier is who you pay. You chose them, you can switch them tomorrow, and there are dozens to choose from.
Your network operator is who owns the wires. You did not choose them, you cannot switch them, and there is exactly one for your address. They are the people who turn up when the street loses power.
So if you send a G98 notification to your supplier, it goes nowhere useful. They are not the people who need to know, and most of their call centres will not know what you are talking about. Send it to the network operator.
The fourteen operators
Fourteen licence areas, owned by six companies. The group names are what you will see on the website, and the licence area is what appears on paperwork.
| Operator | Licence area | Roughly where |
|---|---|---|
| UK Power Networks | Eastern | East Anglia, Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire |
| UK Power Networks | London | Greater London |
| UK Power Networks | South Eastern | Kent, Sussex, Surrey |
| National Grid Electricity Distribution | East Midlands | Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire |
| National Grid Electricity Distribution | West Midlands | Birmingham, Coventry, Staffordshire, Shropshire |
| National Grid Electricity Distribution | South West | Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire |
| National Grid Electricity Distribution | South Wales | Cardiff, Swansea, south and west Wales |
| Northern Powergrid | North East | Newcastle, Durham, Teesside, Northumberland |
| Northern Powergrid | Yorkshire | Leeds, Sheffield, York, Hull |
| Electricity North West | North West | Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria |
| SP Energy Networks | SP Distribution | Central and southern Scotland, including Glasgow and Edinburgh |
| SP Energy Networks | SP Manweb | Merseyside, Cheshire, north Wales |
| Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks | Scottish Hydro | Northern Scotland and the islands |
| Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks | Southern | Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorset |
If you have seen Western Power Distribution mentioned, that is the old name for National Grid Electricity Distribution. Same four areas, same company, rebranded.
Northern Ireland works differently and is not covered by the plug-in solar rules, so it is not in this list.
Why postcodes are not quite enough
Most postcodes sit cleanly inside one licence area. Around twenty postcode areas straddle a boundary, because network boundaries were drawn around substations and cables rather than around postcodes.
Our checker says "needs checking" for those rather than guessing, and points you at both candidates. A tool that confidently gives you the wrong operator is worse than one that admits the boundary is messy, because you will not find out until your notification goes unanswered.
The definitive answer is on your electricity bill. Look for the MPAN, the long number usually printed in a grid. The first two digits of the bottom row are your distributor ID, and that maps to exactly one licence area. If the checker is unsure, the MPAN settles it.
What notifying actually involves
The process is called a G98 notification, after the engineering standard it comes from. Three things to know about it:
- It is free. Nobody should be charging you for this.
- It is not an application. You are not asking permission and they are not deciding whether to let you. You are telling them what is connected so their records are right.
- It is a form, not a visit. Nobody comes round, nobody inspects anything.
For plug-in solar the notification is mandatory and it has to go in before you connect. Compliant kits are required to say so on the product itself. You also notify if you permanently remove the kit, so their records stay accurate.
Most operators now take it through a web form. What you will need to hand:
- Your address and postcode
- Your MPAN, from your electricity bill
- The make and model of the kit
- The inverter's rated output, which for a compliant plug-in kit is 800VA or less
- The date you are connecting it
It takes about ten minutes. You will usually get an automated acknowledgement, and that is the end of your involvement. Keep the acknowledgement email, because it is the only evidence you notified.
What happens if you skip it
Nobody is going to knock on your door. The realistic consequences are two.
The first is your insurer. An unnotified generator connected to your home wiring is the sort of detail that surfaces after a claim rather than before one, and "I did not realise" is a weak position to argue from when the requirement is printed on the product.
The second is that your operator is planning a network without knowing what is on it. Individually a single 800VA kit is nothing. The whole reason the limit is set where it is, and the whole reason notification is mandatory, is that thousands of them on one network stop being nothing.
It is a free form that takes ten minutes. There is no good reason to be the person who did not bother.
This applies to more than solar
If you are notifying for plug-in solar you may as well know that the same operator and a similar process covers a rooftop solar system, a home battery, a heat pump and, depending on the unit, an EV charger. Rooftop solar and batteries are normally notified by your installer as part of the job. Plug-in solar is the one where it falls to you, because there is no installer involved.
If you already had solar notified years ago, you still notify the plug-in kit separately. It is a different device.
Common questions
How do I find out who my network operator is?
Use the checker at the top of this page, or read the first two digits of the bottom row of the MPAN on your electricity bill.
Do I notify before or after I plug it in?
Before. It is a requirement of the rules, not a formality you catch up on.
Will they refuse?
For a compliant plug-in kit inside the 800VA limit, no. You are notifying, not applying.
Do I need to tell my energy supplier too?
No. Your supplier bills you for what you import, and a plug-in kit simply means you import less. You do not get paid for anything you export, so there is nothing for them to set up.
What if I move house?
Notify your old operator that it has gone and your new one that it has arrived. If you move between licence areas, that is two different companies.
Does the kit need to be on the ENA register as well?
Yes, and that is separate. Notification tells your operator what you have connected. The register is what tells you the kit is legal to connect in the first place.
Sources
If something here is wrong or out of date, email info@plugpanel.co.uk and we will correct it.