What the rules allow on your surface
The rules treat brick, stone, render and timber differently.
Read moreFourteen licence areas cover Great Britain. Two of them carry the Northern Powergrid name, and they are separate companies.
Two Northern Powergrid areas
North East England is the licence area of Northern Powergrid (Northeast) plc. Yorkshire is Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire) plc, a separate licence covering the area to the south. Someone in Middlesbrough and someone in Leeds are telling different companies with almost the same name.
We keep the fourteen areas as a working list. We haven't checked it postcode by postcode, so put yours through the operator's own postcode checker before you rely on it.
What the form asks for
You'll fill in a short form online, and it has to reach them within 28 days of the panel going in. It asks for a name, an email address and the address where it was installed. The government puts it at five to ten minutes and says the form will be signposted in the consumer guidance.
That description comes from the impact assessment, which sets out the process the government intends. So treat it as what you are being asked to do.
Ringing 105
Ring 105 and you get your own distribution network operator. The call costs nothing and reaches you anywhere in England, Scotland or Wales. That is a safer answer than our list, and we would rather you used it.
Why you have to tell them
The network is meant to know what is connected to it. The limit of one device per household comes from the same document, Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1. The Energy Networks Association raised it in April 2026 and Ofgem approved it in August.
None of this covers Northern Ireland. Its network is run by Northern Ireland Electricity Networks and its connection requirements come under G98/NI, so this page doesn't apply there.
On this page
Not sure your house is suitable?
One postcode and the surface. We will check it.
Check my postcodeQuestions people ask us
Who do I have to tell?
Your distribution network operator, and you've got 28 days from when the panel goes in to do it. It's a short online form asking for your name, email address and the installation address. Up here that's Northern Powergrid. If you'd rather check for yourself, ring 105. The call is free and it connects you to your own operator.
How many is a household allowed?
One. The product specification allows one device per final ring circuit, then points at the network requirements, which are tighter. G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 allows one device per household, and that holds until it is amended.
What will it save me?
We won't put a figure on that. What a panel generates is not what you save. What you save depends on how much electricity you're using while it generates, and batteries sit outside the approved class, so there's nowhere to put the rest.
The rest of what you get from us
Where were you thinking of putting it?
Tell us your name, postcode and email, and the roof, wall or yard you're thinking of. The reply is an email saying whether the rules allow it and roughly what it would generate.
Replies come by email. Nothing is passed on and nobody pays us commission.
Tell us about your house
Send us a postcode and a line about the surface. You get an email back with the answer for your own house.
- What your surface is made of. The rules treat brick, stone, render and timber differently.
- Where you want the panel. A roof, a yard, a wall or a balcony. Each one generates a different amount.
- An answer by email. We say whether the rules allow it, and what it would generate at your house.
One postcode is enough for us to start
If the rules don't cover your surface, we'll say so. The government expects a planning application to cost more than the panel itself.
Check my postcode