Telling your network operator: the G98 notification you cannot skip

If you connect a plug-in solar device in Great Britain you must tell your distribution network operator. There is no exemption for small systems and no threshold below which the obligation stops applying. Plugging a device into a socket rather than wiring it in makes no difference to it. The device is a generator running in parallel with the public network, and the network operator is entitled to know it exists.

The process is a notification rather than an application. You do not wait for permission. You connect the device, then you tell them, and the process is a single form. This article walks through it.

Your DNO is not your electricity supplier

This is the first thing that trips people up. Your supplier is the company that bills you, such as Octopus, EDF or British Gas. Your distribution network operator is the company that owns the wires and substations in your area, and you do not choose them, because they are determined by geography. Telling your supplier about a plug-in solar device does not discharge the obligation.

The Energy Networks Association publishes a postcode lookup that returns the DNO for any GB address, and the DNO’s own site will have a connections page with the relevant form and contact details. It is worth doing this lookup before you buy, so you know who you will be dealing with.

Connect first, notify after

G98 exists precisely so that small generation can be connected without a case-by-case approval process. The obligation under Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2, at paragraph 8.3.1, is that the Installer must advise the DNO no later than 28 days, inclusive of the day of commissioning, after commissioning. Commissioning here means the point at which the device is connected and operating.

That is the opposite of the sequence most people assume. Rather than seeking consent, you are informing a body with a statutory interest in knowing what is connected to its network, so that it can manage voltage, fault levels and safety on the local circuit.

One caveat about versions. G98 has been amended, and the operative version on 27 August 2026 is Issue 2 Amendment 1 (2026). The 28-day window is the position under G98 Issue 2 and we have no indication it changed, but if you want certainty about the current wording, ask your DNO or check the current issue on the ENA site rather than relying on a summary.

For a self-installed kit, you are the Installer

G98 places the duty on the Installer. For a conventional rooftop system that is the company that fitted it, and the notification is part of the job. For a plug-in device you bought online and hung on a balcony rail yourself, there is no company. You are the Installer, and the duty is yours.

This is the most common failure point in the whole framework, and the specification anticipates it: product marking on a compliant device must state that DNO notification is mandatory on connection and on disconnection, and must carry a link to instructions. If the box you have received says nothing of the sort, that is a signal about the product as well as a gap in your paperwork. See how to check a kit is actually listed.

The form is a Form B

The notification is made using the Installation Document at Appendix 3 of G98, specifically Form B, which is the form used after commissioning where no prior application was made. Most DNOs now accept it through an online portal, and several have web forms that reproduce the same fields rather than asking you to fill in a PDF.

What it asks for is straightforward: the site address and MPAN, your contact details, the date of commissioning, the make and model of the equipment, its rated output, and the type-test reference for the equipment. That last field is where your ENA Type Test Register reference goes, which is another reason to have obtained it from the seller before you bought.

Keep a copy of what you submit and any acknowledgement you receive. If you sell the property, the next occupier inherits a device on the network, and a record of the notification is the simplest way to hand that over cleanly.

You notify again when it comes down

Disconnection is notifiable too. If you remove the device, whether because you move, replace it or decide the balcony looks better without it, the DNO needs to know it is no longer there. The requirement predates plug-in solar. It is how the network operator keeps its record of connected generation accurate, and the specification makes the disconnection requirement explicit in the product marking.

What the 800 W threshold does and does not exempt you from

You will see it claimed that devices under 800 W are exempt from notification. They are not. Generators below 800 W are exempt from certain frequency-response requirements within the engineering standard. That is a technical carve-out about how the device must behave during a grid frequency excursion. It has nothing to do with whether you tell anyone the device exists.

G98 itself applies to connections up to and including 16 A per phase in aggregate. An 800 VA / 800 W plug-in device draws well under that, which is why it falls within G98 rather than the heavier G99 process. Aggregate is the operative word: if you already have generation connected, the totals are what matter, and there is separately a one device per household limit under the current G98 amendment.

Simpler routes, and Northern Ireland

A simpler route has been promised

The government has said it will work toward a simplified notification route for plug-in devices, which is a reasonable ambition given that the framework is aimed at people who have never dealt with a DNO in their lives. No mechanism, form or date has been published.

Northern Ireland is different

G98 is a Great Britain document. Northern Ireland uses G98/NI, and the application of the plug-in framework there awaits a decision by the relevant Northern Ireland department. If you are in NI, do not assume the GB process applies to you. The position is set out in plug-in solar in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The short version

1. Find your DNO by postcode before you buy.
2. Get the ENA type-test reference from the seller.
3. Connect the device and note the date.
4. Submit a Form B to your DNO within 28 days, inclusive of that date.
5. Keep the acknowledgement.
6. Notify again if you remove it.

None of this is difficult. It is a step a lot of buyers will not know exists, because nothing else you plug into a socket has ever required it. For the wider legal picture, see the legal rules in full.