I’ve Plugged In My Solar Panel. Do I Need to Tell Anyone?
28 days from commissioning Engineering Recommendation G98 §1.1 Verified 1 August 2026 Portal section verified 2 September 2026
G98 applies to Great Britain. In Northern Ireland connection requirements are set out separately by Engineering Recommendation G98/NI — Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification v2.0, footnote 3, read 5 August 2026.
And here is the part that changed: G98 puts that duty on the installer, and from 27 August 2026 you may lawfully buy a plug-in unit and put it in a socket yourself, with no installer anywhere in the story. Until late August 2026 no published source said what that person should do. On 2 September 2026 we read myplugin.solar, a registration site operated by Energy Networks Association Limited (company no. 04832301), whose own FAQ answers it: “You can notify your DNO by clicking the ‘Register Plug-in Solar Device’ button at the top of this page.” EREC G98 itself is unchanged — the duty it names still sits with the installer. Below: what the portal says, what each operator says, and the two things still nobody has answered.
Find your network operator
It depends on where you live, not on who you buy electricity from. Look at your electricity bill for the supply number box — the grid of digits, sometimes labelled MPAN or “Supply Number”. The first two digits of the bottom row are the distributor ID.
Worked out in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored, and we never see it. Your supply number identifies your address, so we would rather not have it.
| ID | Network operator | Licence areas | Deadline | Form | Where to notify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10, 12, 19 | UK Power Networks | Eastern England · London · South Eastern England | 28 days | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
| 11, 14, 21, 22 | National Grid Electricity Distribution | East Midlands · West Midlands · Southern Wales · South Western England | 28 days | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
| 13, 18 | SP Energy Networks | Cheshire, Merseyside and Northern Wales · Southern Scotland | 28 days see note | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
| 15, 23 | Northern Powergrid | North Eastern England · Yorkshire | 28 days | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
| 16 | Electricity North West | North Western England | 28 days | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
| 17, 20 | Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks | Northern Scotland · Southern England | 28 days | G98 Form B | Notification page → |
14 licence areas, 6 operator groups. Area list from the Energy Networks Association. Operator links checked 1 August 2026.
What the rule actually says
“the Installer is required to ensure that the DNO is made aware of the Micro-generator installation before the time of commissioning or no later than 28 days (inclusive of the day of commissioning) after commissioning”
Legal basis: Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 Regulation 22(2)(c), and the Certificate of Exemption granted by the Health and Safety Executive in August 2008. The form for a single home is G98 Form B, the Installation Document at Annex 3 of EREC G98. For an installation spanning more than one premises it is G98 Form A instead.
This is a notification, not an application. You are not asking permission and the operator is not deciding anything. It exists so the people who maintain the network know there is a generator behind that meter.
The gap, and how it closed
We think this is the most useful thing on the page, so we are not going to bury it.
- What the rule says. The network operator must be made aware within 28 days of commissioning.
- Who it names. EREC G98 puts the duty on the installer. The ENA’s own guide phrases it the same way: “Your installer must notify the DNO… This is a legal requirement.”
- What the new law says about it. Nothing. SI 2026 No. 848 does not mention G98, network operator notification, or any connection procedure.
- What one operator says. UK Power Networks — the largest by licence area — states that only installers can notify on a customer’s behalf:
- UKPN — installer portal: “Only approved installers can use Smart Connect on behalf of customers” (www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk, read 2026-08-01)
- UKPN — consumer guidance: “Only installers can notify us on behalf of customers” (www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk, read 2026-08-01)
- What the other five say. Nothing. NGED, SPEN, NPg, ENWL, SSEN do not address the question on any page we could find.
So: from 27 August 2026 the law lets you buy a plug-in unit and put it in a socket with no installer involved, and the G98 notification process assumes an installer exists. For the first week of that period, no primary document we could find said what that householder should do, and we recorded it as unknown rather than resolving it.
What we read on 2 September 2026. myplugin.solar — “UK Plug-in Solar Registration” — is operated by Energy Networks Association Limited, company number 04832301, registered at 4 More London Riverside, London SE1 2AU, per its own footer. It runs a four-step form: verify email by one-time code, confirm address by postcode, select a device from the compliant list, submit. Its FAQ says the registration is the notification: “a notification will be sent to your DNO to inform them that the plug-in solar device will be used at the address provided.” Its privacy policy explains where that goes: “ENA sends the Registration Details to the relevant DNO/iDNO to enable them to maintain the ENA G98 Type Test Register.” The string G98 appears nowhere on the portal’s front page or in its Terms of Use — only there.
On timing, our two sources differ. The portal’s FAQ says “You should submit your registration once you have your plug-in solar device and know the address where it will be installed.” The Energy Saving Trust, which links to the portal, says “You’re legally required to register any plug-in solar panel devices before you use them.” Both read 2 September 2026. The sources differ on timing; the stricter reading is to register before first use. We quote both and do not resolve it for you.
What EREC G98 still says. Nothing here changes it. G98 §1.1 still places the duty on the installer, and the portal does not amend, replace or mention it. If your device was hardwired by an electrician, that is still the G98 route described above.
The two things still unanswered. Whether any charge applies, and what someone with a hardwired install or a device not on the compliant list should do — the portal says only that an absent device “may still be undergoing assessment.” On those two, this still holds: ring your own network operator, ask them directly, and keep a note of what they said and when. If you do, tell us what you were told — we will publish the answers with the date and the operator.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. It is a record of what the published sources say, with the places they say nothing marked as such.
800 W and 3.68 kW are not the same limit
These two numbers get mixed up constantly, including in news coverage.
- 800 W is a product limit. It is part of the statutory definition of a plug-in microgenerator in SI 2026 No. 848, measured as maximum rated alternating current output. Go above it and the device simply is not a plug-in microgenerator, so the new regulation does not cover it.
- 3.68 kW per phase, or 16 A, is a process limit. It sets what is eligible for the G98 connection route. Three-phase, the figure is 11.04 kW.
Different documents, different jobs. A device can be inside one and outside the other.
Northern Ireland is not fully covered
Nearly every article about 27 August says “the UK”. The extent of SI 2026 No. 848 is not uniform:
- Regulations 1 and 2 extend to England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.
- Regulation 3 — the one requiring a plug-in microgenerator to comply with the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification — extends only to England and Wales, Scotland. It does not extend to Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland also does not appear in the Energy Networks Association distribution licence area table, so the operator table above does not cover it. If you are in Northern Ireland, treat this page as background and check with NIE Networks directly.
What you will need to hand
- Your supply number (MPAN), from the bill.
- The make and model of the inverter, and its rated AC output.
- The date it was commissioned — the day it first ran.
- The address and your contact details.
Keep whatever confirmation you get. There is no central register you can check later.
Sources
- SI 2026 No. 848 as made
- ENA Engineering Recommendation G98 (PDF)
- ENA — who is my network operator
- Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification
Everything above is generated from our open dataset (v1.4, 2 September 2026) so this page and the data cannot drift apart. The fields, including the ones recorded as unknown, are documented on the developers page. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
That dataset is archived at Zenodo, the open research repository run by CERN, and carries a permanent DOI — 10.5281/zenodo.21752864. So if you want to check where any of this comes from, the developers page explains how the data is structured and the DOI proves what was published and when.
Questions people are actually asking
- I've plugged in my solar panel. Do I need to tell anyone?
- Someone has to tell your Distribution Network Operator — the company that owns the wires into your home, not the company that bills you. Engineering Recommendation G98, section 1.1, requires the network operator to be made aware before the unit is commissioned or no later than 28 days after, counting the day of commissioning. That is an obligation under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002, not a courtesy. The catch is that G98 places the duty on the installer, and if you plugged the device in yourself there is no installer. Until late August 2026 no published source resolved that. It is now answered by myplugin.solar, the registration site operated by Energy Networks Association Limited, read 2 September 2026: registering the device there sends the notification to your DNO.
- Which network operator is mine?
- It is set by where you live, not by your supplier. Look at your electricity bill for the supply number box. The first two digits of the bottom row are the distributor ID. Enter it in the tool on this page, or read it off the table.
- Does the new law from 27 August 2026 change the notification?
- No. SI 2026 No. 848 makes plug-in solar lawful to sell and connect from 27 August 2026. It does not mention Engineering Recommendation G98, network operator notification, or any connection procedure at all. The two are separate frameworks and should not be conflated.
- Can I notify the network operator myself, without an installer?
- Until late August 2026 no published source resolved this. It is now answered by myplugin.solar, the registration site operated by Energy Networks Association Limited. Read 2 September 2026, its FAQ states: “You can notify your DNO by clicking the ‘Register Plug-in Solar Device’ button at the top of this page”, and “Once your registration has been submitted, a notification will be sent to your DNO.” The portal’s own FAQ also states: “Yes. Registering your plug-in solar device is a legal requirement.” Its Terms of Use say this is “as required by the regulations relating to these devices”, without naming them, so we attribute that claim to the portal rather than making it in our own voice. What we have read of SI 2026/848 imposes a compliance duty on the device; we have not read an express consumer-registration provision in it, and we do not infer one. EREC G98 is unchanged: it still places the duty on the installer, and UK Power Networks still states on two of its own pages, read 2026-08-01, that only installers can notify it on behalf of customers.
- Is there a fee?
- We do not know. None of the operator pages we read states a fee for a single-premises G98 notification, but none states that it is free either, and we are not willing to infer it. Ask your operator.
- Is 800 W the same as the 3.68 kW figure I keep seeing?
- No, and this is the most common confusion. 800 W is a product limit: it is part of the statutory definition of a plug-in microgenerator in SI 2026 No. 848, measured as maximum rated alternating current output. 3.68 kW per phase, or 16 A, is the eligibility limit for the G98 connection process. Different purposes, different documents.
- I live in Northern Ireland. Does this apply to me?
- Partly, and the difference matters. Regulations 1 and 2 of SI 2026 No. 848 extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Regulation 3, the one that requires a plug-in microgenerator to comply with the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification, does not extend to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland also does not appear in the Energy Networks Association distribution licence area table, so the operator table on this page does not cover it.
- Does a plug-in system with a battery count?
- Not under this instrument. Condition (e) of the statutory definition excludes a device designed to import electricity from the household installation in order to store it for later supply. A plug-in kit whose battery charges from your mains is therefore not a plug-in microgenerator under SI 2026 No. 848.