Most regions can be told to write to a company and that is the end of it. Here the company name alone is not an answer.
Of the fourteen distribution licence areas in Great Britain, four are held under names that differ only in the bracket.
| Licence area | Operator as named |
|---|---|
| South West England | National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West) plc |
| South Wales | National Grid Electricity Distribution (South Wales) plc |
| West Midlands | National Grid Electricity Distribution (West Midlands) plc |
| East Midlands | National Grid Electricity Distribution (East Midlands) plc |
A working map, taken from a secondary source and not yet confirmed against each operator's own postcode checker. Recorded as provisional for that reason.
Two of those four sit on either side of the Severn. A household here that searches the company name and lands on the wrong area's pages will be reading the right company's site and the wrong region's procedure. The postcode checker removes the ambiguity in seconds and is worth using even when you are fairly sure.
Once you have the right area, the task itself is small, and it is emphatically not an application.
Engineering Recommendation G98 governs connection. The Energy Networks Association raised the change that admits plug-in solar on 1 April 2026, the Authority approved it in an Ofgem decision dated 11 August 2026, and it came into effect alongside the product regulations on 27 August 2026. Capping a household at a single device came in on the back of it.
On the householder side, the department costed the whole business at between five and ten minutes: a short form published online, filled in within 28 days of the device going up, carrying a name, an email address and the address it is installed at. That description comes from the final stage impact assessment rather than from G98 itself.
An impact assessment sets out the process government intended, so we present it as what you are asked to do rather than as a deadline with a sanction behind it. The substance is not in doubt: three pieces of information, after the fact, inside four weeks.
| Question | Not them. Them. |
|---|---|
| Whether you may fix it to a timber wall | The planning authority |
| Whether your lease or landlord permits it | Whoever owns the building |
| Whether the kit you bought is compliant | The manufacturer, evidenced by registration on the ENA Type Test Register before it is placed on the market |
| Whether your socket is fit to use | You, and an electrician if there is any doubt about it |
| How much you will save | Your own consumption at the moment the panel is producing |