Northern Powergrid gives you two ways to notify, and the one it presents first has a login screen in front of it.
Follow the “Apply online” button from its small scale generation page and you do not arrive at a form. You arrive at Northern Powergrid’s single sign-on, asking for an email address and password, with a Register link underneath. Create the account — first name, last name, email, password, a reCAPTCHA — and only then do you reach the G98 service request.
Registration walls are not unusual in themselves; UK Power Networks puts one in front of Smart Connect too. What is different here is who can get through. UKPN’s login is scoped to approved installers, so a householder is stopped at the door. Northern Powergrid’s registration is ordinary open self-service — anyone can create an account in a minute, and it is the same sign-on used for reporting power cuts and joining the priority services register, so you may already have one.
So the wall is a speed bump rather than a barrier. It is just an unexpected one, and knowing about it before you sit down with your electricity bill saves a certain amount of irritation. And if you would rather not create an account at all, there is a paper route with a published address — which is more than some operators offer.
The North East, Yorkshire, and where the boundaries really run
Two licence areas, covering the North East and Yorkshire. Check the first two digits of the MPAN on your bill:
- 15 — North Eastern England
- 23 — Yorkshire
The boundaries are less intuitive than the names suggest. Northern Powergrid runs into northern Lincolnshire; it does not run into Cumbria or Lancashire, which are Electricity North West; and it stops at the Scottish border, beyond which you are into SP Energy Networks territory. If in doubt, the MPAN settles it — the postcode checker at energynetworks.org will too.
Two ways in, one of them gated
The online service request. Reached from the small scale generation page, behind the sign-on described above. It runs on the same customer platform Northern Powergrid uses for power cut reports, disconnections and priority services registrations, so if you have ever registered for one of those you may already have the account.
The downloadable form.Northern Powergrid’s connections application forms library holds the G98 paperwork. The form you want is listed there as G98 Form B — Notification of microgeneration installations at a single premises. Form A is the multiple-premises application. There is also a G98 Form D — Application to decommission microgeneration, which matters more than it sounds and is covered below.
The forms library also tells you exactly where to send it, which not every operator does. Under “Prefer a paper form? How to apply”, Northern Powergrid gives three routes:
- Email your application to getconnected@northernpowergrid.com
- Post to FREEPOST RTSJ-LHKB-LTST, Northern Powergrid Connections, Alix House, Falcon Court, Preston Farm Industrial Estate, Stockton on Tees, TS18 3TU
- Phone 0800 011 3433
The same email address is the one listed against Northern Powergrid in the Energy Networks Association’s operator directory, so it is the right one.
That gives you a genuine choice: register an account and use the online service request, or download Form B and email it. Both are open to a householder. What we could not establish is whether the online service request behaves any differently for a non-installer once you are through the sign-in.
One caution that applies to the paper route whichever operator you are with: the ENA Form B has an Installer Details block and an installer declaration on it. Our walkthrough of the form sets out what that means for a device you installed yourself, and it is unresolved.
Two ways in, pick before you start
Your deadline is 28 days. Theirs is unstated.
Northern Powergrid does publish a deadline for you, on its micro-generation page: notification is due within 28 days of connecting the equipment. That matches every other operator in Great Britain except SP Energy Networks, which uses 30. Diarise it from the day you plug the device in.
What Northern Powergrid does not publish is any commitment of its own. There is no acknowledgement time, no response standard and no service level anywhere we could find. You will see figures elsewhere — five to ten working days is the number that circulates most — but that comes from third-party guides describing other operators, not from Northern Powergrid. Repeating it here with its name attached would be inventing a commitment on its behalf.
What we would do: submit, screenshot the confirmation, and diarise a follow-up if nothing has arrived in a month. Your submission is itself evidence that you notified, whatever the operator does next.
Form D, for when the device comes down
Northern Powergrid is one of the operators that publishes a decommissioning form — G98 Form D — Application to decommission microgeneration — in the same forms library as Form B. SP Energy Networks publishes an equivalent.
This matters more for plug-in solar than it ever did for rooftop panels. IPS version 2 requires the device’s marking to state that notification about connection and disconnection is mandatory, and a plug-in device is portable by design: it comes off the balcony when you move, when you replace it, or when you decide you would rather have the space. Keep Form D with your notification record.
Generation and storage go the same way here
Northern Powergrid’s page is scoped to “small scale generation and energy storage devices” together, which is a helpful prompt to get one thing straight.
A compliant plug-in solar device has no storage in it. Battery storage within the device is not permitted on the plug-in route, so when the form asks about energy storage capacity, the answer is zero.
If that feels wrong — if the kit you bought has a battery in the box — then it is not on the plug-in route at all. It is not unlawful and it is not useless, but it needs a conventional installation by an electrician rather than a plug in a socket. We have set out which products this catches and why, and balcony solar battery storage covers the alternatives.
The other box that catches people is registered capacity. It is the microinverter’s AC output, not the panel wattage — 0.8 kW or lower for any compliant device. The field-by-field form walkthrough has the rest.
An awkward route is not an absent duty
The obligation is not the thing that's unfinished
Two things that sit alongside it. G98 is a Great Britain document — Northern Ireland uses G98/NI, and both Northern Powergrid areas are in Great Britain. And the limit that actually binds a household is one device, not one per circuit: IPS version 2 permits one per final circuit, but Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 restricts it to one per household unless and until that is amended, and the tighter rule wins.
That last point deserves emphasis because the arithmetic invites the opposite conclusion. G98 covers up to 3.68 kW on a single phase. A compliant device is 800 VA. It is tempting to conclude you could run four of them. You cannot.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Northern Powergrid account to submit a G98?
For the online route, yes. The “Apply online” link goes to Northern Powergrid’s single sign-on, and you register before you reach the form. Registration is open self-service, not installer-gated. If you would rather not, download Form B and email it to getconnected@northernpowergrid.com instead.
Who submits the G98, the installer or the customer?
Whoever is connecting the generation. For a professionally installed system that is normally the installer; for a plug-in device you installed yourself, it is you. Northern Powergrid’s page does not restrict its online route to installers, unlike some operators.
How long does a G98 notification take with Northern Powergrid?
Northern Powergrid sets you a deadline of 28 days from connecting the equipment, but publishes no timescale of its own for acknowledging or responding. We have not been able to verify one, and we would rather say so than pass on a figure from somewhere else.
Where do I send a paper G98 Form B to Northern Powergrid?
Email it to getconnected@northernpowergrid.com, or post it FREEPOST to Northern Powergrid Connections, Alix House, Stockton on Tees TS18 3TU. Northern Powergrid also takes applications by phone on 0800 011 3433.
Do I need a G98 for battery storage without solar panels?
Storage connections do fall within the G98 and G99 framework, and Northern Powergrid’s page covers generation and storage together. But a battery-integrated plug-in device is outside the plug-in route entirely — that is a product question before it is a notification question.
Is a G98 notification still needed after 27 August 2026?
Yes. Legalisation makes compliant devices lawful to sell and use from 27 August 2026; it does not remove the notification duty. The simplified route is what is still being built.
If 3.68 kW is the G98 cutoff, can I connect several 800 W devices?
No, and this is the single most misreported point about the new rules. IPS version 2 permits one device per final circuit, but its own note records that G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 restricts this to one device per household, and that this applies unless and until G98 is amended. The product marking may say “per household circuit”. The binding limit is one per household.
What happens if I never notify?
There is no documented enforcement action against a household for this, and a small device’s output is difficult to distinguish from reduced consumption at the meter. That is a description of reality, not advice — the duty is real, the process is short, and the absence of a record is the sort of thing that surfaces awkwardly at sale or when a supplier asks.
For the standard rather than one operator’s handling of it, see our G98 and DNO notification explainer and the balcony solar G98 notification guide.