The form you need is called Form B, you complete it after the device is commissioned rather than before, and it wants your address and MPAN, the device’s manufacturer and reference number, its capacity in kW, the commissioning date, a customer signature — and a full set of installer details, including accreditation and an installer signature. Notification is mandatory. The form goes to your network operator, not your electricity supplier.
That last item is the problem, and it is why this page exists. The ENA form that every network operator distributes was written on the assumption that a qualified installer fills it in. A plug-in solar device is designed so that there is no installer. The rest of this page is what the form actually contains, box by box, including the three fields a self-installed device cannot straightforwardly answer.
What G98 is, and what it is not
Engineering Recommendation G98 is the document that governs how small generating equipment connects to the low-voltage distribution network in Great Britain. The current issue is Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026. It is published by the Energy Networks Association and it sits as an annex to the Distribution Code, which is why network operators describe notifying under it as a legal obligation rather than a courtesy.
It covers generation up to 16 A per phase — around 3.68 kW on a single-phase supply. A compliant plug-in solar device tops out at 800 VA of apparent power and 3.5 A of output current, so it sits a very long way inside that ceiling. G98 is not a difficult standard for a device like this to satisfy. The difficulty is administrative.
One point of scope, because it matters and it is routinely got wrong: G98 is a Great Britain document. Northern Ireland uses G98/NI, and the Interim Product Specification says that applying the specification there is subject to further consideration. If you are in Northern Ireland, nothing on this page is your process.
Notification is mandatory. The simplified route is what's unfinished.
Form A, Form B, Form C, Form D
There are four G98 forms and most people only ever hear about one of them.
- Form B is the installation document for a single premises. This is your form.
- Form A is an application where micro-generators are being connected at more than one premises in the same area within a short window. It is a network-planning form, not a household one.
- Form C is the type test verification report. It is completed by manufacturers, not by you.
- Form D is the decommissioning confirmation — the form you send when the device comes off the wall.
Form D deserves a mention now rather than as an afterthought, because the specification puts the deregistration duty on the same footing as the registration one. SP Energy Networks and Northern Powergrid both publish one; others handle decommissioning by email. Check your own operator rather than assuming either way.
What to gather before you open the form
Have all of this to hand and the form takes about fifteen minutes. Hunt for it mid-form and it takes an afternoon.
- Your full address and postcode
- Your MPAN, from your electricity bill
- The make and model of the device, exactly as printed on it
- The device’s AC output rating, in kW
- The date you commissioned it, or intend to
- The device’s entry on the ENA Type Test Register, if there is one
The form has an installer declaration on it, and this is unresolved
We need to correct something that is widely assumed, including in an earlier version of this page. Form B is not a simple householder notification. It contains an Installer Details block — Installer, Accreditation / Qualification, address, contact person, telephone, email and Installer signature — and the declaration at the foot is headed “Declaration – to be completed by Installer for Micro-generators Tested to EREC G98”. We downloaded and read the copies published by National Grid Electricity Distribution and SSEN and confirmed both are the same ENA template with the same blocks.
A plug-in solar device has no installer. That is the entire design of the product. So the form a plug-in owner is obliged to submit has a signature block for a person who does not exist.
We do not know how a self-installing householder is meant to handle that, and we are not going to tell you to sign the installer declaration yourself or to leave it blank — either could invalidate your notification, and neither is documented anywhere we could find. Ask your network operator before you submit, and keep the answer in writing.
This is the same structural gap that shows up in the submission channels — UK Power Networks routes notification exclusively through a portal only approved installers may use — appearing a second time, in the paperwork itself. It is the clearest sign that the simplified registration route the government has promised has real work to do.
Step 1: Get the exact product details
Take these from the device, not from the listing. You want the product name and the model number printed on the microinverter or the device label — the exact product, not the range it belongs to. Marketplace listings routinely describe a kit by a family name that appears nowhere on the hardware, and the rating shown in a listing photograph is not evidence of anything.
Step 2: Find your DNO
Your distribution network operator owns the cables in your street. It is not the company that bills you. There are six operators across fourteen licence areas in Great Britain, and you can find yours by postcode at energynetworks.org — or faster, from your MPAN.
Step 3: Find your MPAN
Your MPAN is the long number on your electricity bill, usually printed in a bordered grid and labelled Supply Number. The first two digits are the distributor ID, and they tell you which network operator you belong to without you having to guess from a map.
| First two digits | Licence area | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Eastern England | UK Power Networks |
| 11 | East Midlands | National Grid Electricity Distribution |
| 12 | London | UK Power Networks |
| 13 | Cheshire, Merseyside and Northern Wales | SP Energy Networks |
| 14 | West Midlands | National Grid Electricity Distribution |
| 15 | North Eastern England | Northern Powergrid |
| 16 | North Western England | Electricity North West |
| 17 | Northern Scotland | SSEN |
| 18 | Southern Scotland | SP Energy Networks |
| 19 | South Eastern England | UK Power Networks |
| 20 | Southern England | SSEN |
| 21 | Southern Wales | National Grid Electricity Distribution |
| 22 | South Western England | National Grid Electricity Distribution |
| 23 | Yorkshire | Northern Powergrid |
Source: the Energy Networks Association’s network operator directory, checked 10 August 2026. The postcode checker at energynetworks.org gives the same answer if you would rather not dig out a bill.
The form, box by box
Form B is two pages. Much of it is your address, and the rest divides into fields a plug-in owner can answer easily, and three that they cannot.
Step 4: Fill in the customer, installer and site details
Customer Details. Your name, address, contact person if different, telephone, email, and a Customer signature. If you rent, this is still you — the notification records what is connected at the supply, and it does not go to your landlord.
Installer Details. Installer, Accreditation / Qualification, address, contact, and Installer signature. See the warning above; this block is unresolved for a self-installed device.
MPAN(s). As above. If your bill shows two MPANs, use the import one. An export MPAN is a separate thing that your supplier arranges later, and only if you are pursuing an export tariff.
Location within Customer’s Installation. Where the generation sits — for a plug-in device, the socket outlet it is plugged into and the room it is in.
Location of Lockable Isolation Switch. This is the second field a plug-in device cannot properly answer. G98 is written around an isolator that can be locked in the off position, and several operators list exactly that among their eligibility criteria. A plug-in device has no isolator: the BS 1363 plug is the means of disconnection, and a plug is not a lockable isolation switch. We are not going to tell you what to write here, because we do not know what your operator will accept. Ask.
Energy source and energy conversion technology.Not a word — a code. The form says “enter codes from tables 1 and 2 below”, and the two tables are printed on the form itself. Read your codes off the version your operator publishes rather than trusting a number quoted elsewhere.
Step 5: Enter the registered capacity
This is the box that catches everyone, and the answer is counter-intuitive. It is the inverter’srated AC output, not the panel wattage. Electricity North West puts it plainly in its own guidance: where the installation includes an inverter, the rating is taken to be the inverter’s continuous steady state rating.
So a kit with 1,000 W of panels feeding an 800 VA microinverter is an 0.8 kW installation for this purpose. Under the Interim Product Specification a compliant device cannot exceed 800 VA, which means every compliant plug-in solar device in Great Britain writes 0.8 kW or less in this box. If you have written 2 kW because that is what the panels add up to, you have answered a different question.
Which phase column.There is no “number of phases” box. The capacity table has 3-Phase and Single Phase columns headed PH1, PH2 and PH3, and the form instructs: “Use PH 1 column for single phase supply.” A compliant plug-in device is single phase only, so your figure goes in PH1. G98 itself runs to 16 A per phase, about 3.68 kW on a single-phase supply, so there is a great deal of headroom above you.
Step 6: Enter the energy storage capacity
Zero — on the versions of Form B that ask. The field is “Energy storage capacity for Electricity Storage devices (kWh)”, and battery storage within the device is not permitted under the plug-in route, so a compliant plug-in device has nothing to declare.
Not every operator publishes the same vintage of the form, though. Electricity North West’s published Form B is an older issue that has no energy storage field at all, so if the box is not there, nothing is wrong — you have a different version. Check the footer of the form you downloaded.
If you are about to enter a real figure, the kit you own is a battery-integrated system and it cannot use this route at all — it needs a conventional installation instead. That is a bigger problem than the form.
Step 7: Add the manufacturer reference number, and read the declaration
The reference number is the device’s entry on the ENA Type Test Register — the form says as much: “this number should be registered on the ENA Type Test Register as the system reference”. More on that below.
Then read the declaration at the foot, in full, because it is shorter and narrower than people expect:
“I declare that the relevant Micro-generators and the installation which together form a Micro-generating Plant within the scope of EREC G98 at the above address, conform to the requirements of EREC G98. This declaration of compliance is confined to Micro-generating Plant tested to EREC G98 or EREC G83 as applicable at the time of commissioning. I enclose a copy of the system schematic which has been left on site at the Customer’s incoming meter location.”
Two things follow. First, the declaration references EREC G98 and G83 only — BS 7671 does not appear anywhere on Form B, so anything you have read about the form asking you to certify compliance with the Wiring Regulations is wrong. Second, a system schematic is a universal requirement. It is not an NGED quirk or a SP Energy Networks quirk, whatever those operators’ own pages emphasise: every copy of Form B asks you to enclose one and to leave a copy on site at the incoming meter location.
For a plug-in device that schematic is short — panel, microinverter, factory-fitted lead and BS 1363 plug, socket outlet, with the inverter’s make, model and rated output labelled. There is no additional wiring to draw.
Connect Direct appears on the form too
The capacity box in one line
The ENA Type Test Register reference — and what you may find there
The register is at connect-direct.energynetworks.org. Filter by device type and look for the exact model of the complete kit, not the microinverter inside it. This distinction matters more than it sounds: a register entry can cover a component rather than the assembled product, which lets a seller point at something genuine while the kit you are buying has never been assessed as a whole. Check what the entry actually covers.
Now the part that will be inconvenient. A device type called Plug-in Solar now exists on the register, with entries from InstaGroup, Anker Innovations and GoodWe. Every one of them is currently marked Non-compliant. The number verified compliant is zero.
We are deliberately not printing a device count here, because it will be wrong by the time you read it. The list changed overnight on 10–11 August when two GoodWe records were superseded by amended versions, and the type filter does not currently return those amendments — so running the search yourself may show fewer devices than actually exist. Our certified kits tracker carries the current state, entry by entry.
It is worth being precise about what that status means, because it sounds harsher than it is. ENA’s published taxonomy puts “Non-compliant” as a sub-category of Further Information Required — the parent status meaning that following review of the device and its documentation, more is needed before a compliant status can be achieved. The sub-status itself reads that the device and documentation cannot be deemed compliant at this stage, and that once the comments have been actioned and the documentation updated by the manufacturer, it will be reviewed again in due course.
So this is a staging state that anticipates another look, not a failure and not a safety finding. What it does mean for you today is simple enough: a device sitting at that status is not compliant today and cannot be relied on today. Whether and when any given device moves is not something we can predict, and we are not going to try. The register moves weekly, so check the date on anything you read about it, including this page.
Registration is not verification
Where to send it
There is no single national inbox, and this is where the process stops being uniform. Each of the six network operators in Great Britain has built its own route, and they differ in ways that will change what you do this afternoon. SP Energy Networks wants the form within 30 days rather than the 28 everyone else uses, and asks to hear from you before you commission rather than after. Northern Powergrid puts an account registration in front of its online form. UK Power Networks routes notification exclusively through a portal that only approved installers may use.
We have checked all six on their own websites and written them up separately:
- SSEN — Form B by email, with different addresses for Scotland and England
- UK Power Networks — Smart Connect, restricted to approved installers
- National Grid Electricity Distribution — an online form needing no account, or Form B by email or post
- Northern Powergrid — an online service request behind an open account login, or Form B by email
- Electricity North West — email only, to a named G98 mailbox, on an older version of the form
- SP Energy Networks — Form B within 30 days, with an SSEG test report attached
After you send it
Keep a copy of what you sent and of anything that comes back. That is the whole of the aftercare, and it is worth doing properly, because the acknowledgement is the document a supplier may ask for if you later apply for an export tariff, and it is the document that answers the question at the point of sale.
On timescales, we would rather be dull than wrong. Turnaround figures circulate freely in forums and range from a few hours to several weeks. Some operators publish a submission deadline for you and no response standard for themselves. Ask your own operator what it expects, and whether it wants the acknowledgement in hand before you commission — because the answer genuinely differs between them.
Telling them when you take it down
The specification requires products to carry deregistration guidance alongside the registration guidance, which means the duty runs both ways. If you move house, or the device fails, or you simply take it off the balcony, the operator’s record should be corrected. SP Energy Networks and Northern Powergrid both publish a Form D for exactly this. Others handle it by email. Nobody chases you, which is precisely why it is worth putting a note in the same folder as the acknowledgement.
G98 or G99?
G99 applies above 16 A per phase. Your device is 3.5 A at most. It is G98, and it will remain G98 however many panels the listing photograph shows.
The related trap is arithmetic. If G98 covers 3.68 kW, and a device is 800 VA, it is tempting to conclude you may connect four of them. You may not. IPS version 2 permits one device per final circuit, but its own note records that Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 restricts this to one device per household, and that this applies unless and until G98 is amended. Two limits, and the tighter one wins: one device per household.
Frequently asked questions
What are the steps involved in the G98 process?
Identify your network operator from your MPAN, gather the device details, complete Form B, submit it by your operator’s route, and keep the acknowledgement. For a plug-in device the whole thing is one form and one email or web submission.
What does a G98 certificate look like?
There generally isn’t one. G98 produces a notification record and, usually, an acknowledgement email from the operator. Some operators send a formal confirmation; some send an automated receipt; some send nothing without prompting. If you are being asked for a “G98 certificate”, the acknowledgement email is what is meant.
How do I get my G98 certificate?
By submitting the notification and keeping what comes back. If nothing arrives, follow up in writing and keep the follow-up. Your submission is itself evidence that you notified.
Do I use the solar panel wattage or the inverter wattage on the G98 form?
The inverter. For a compliant plug-in solar device that is 800 VA or less, whatever the panels add up to.
Do I need a qualified electrician to sign anything off?
This is genuinely unresolved, and anyone telling you a flat yes or no is guessing. Form B contains an Installer Details block asking for accreditation and an installer signature, and its declaration is headed “to be completed by Installer”. A self-installed plug-in device has no installer to complete it. We have flagged this with your operator in mind: ask them before you submit, and keep the reply.
Separately, and this one is clear: the specification requires manufacturers to advise professional assessment above 960 W of panels, but the advice is mandatory, not the assessment, and a kit above 960 W is fully compliant.
Do we need to register both the batteries and the solar inverter?
If your kit has a battery in it, it is not on the plug-in route at all. Battery storage within the device is not permitted, so a compliant plug-in device has no storage to declare. Battery-integrated systems can be installed, but conventionally, by an electrician.
Does G98 approval mean I can plug solar into any UK socket?
No. The specification permits connection to socket circuits only — not lighting circuits or circuits feeding fixed equipment — and prohibits extension cables and extension leads, multi-way adaptors, RCD adaptors, travel adaptors and plug convertors. There are also surfaces on which installation is not permitted at all.
What is the G98 letter?
Another name for the operator’s acknowledgement. There is no standard format, which is why it goes by several names.
If you want the regulatory background rather than the form-filling, our G98 and DNO notification explainer covers the standard itself, and the balcony solar G98 notification guide is the shorter route in. To check where the register has got to, see our tracker of certified plug-in solar kits. And if your kit has a battery in it, start with what the battery rules actually exclude.