Nothing about this step happens before you buy, and nobody is being asked to approve anything.
Our working map puts this region in the West Midlands distribution licence area, held by National Grid Electricity Distribution (West Midlands) plc. Three further areas run under names identical apart from the bracket, covering the East Midlands, South Wales and the South West, so the bracket is the part that matters when you search.
Our source for the fourteen licence areas is secondary, which is why we call it a map rather than an answer. The operator publishes a postcode checker and that is the thing that settles it.
Your supplier sells electricity. The distribution network operator owns the cable in the street. You do not pick your operator, switching supplier does not change it, and the notification goes to the operator.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| When | Within 28 days of installing it |
| Format | A short online form published by the operator |
| Contents | Name, email address, installation address |
| Time | Five to ten minutes on the department's estimate |
| Cost | None, and no inspection is triggered |
| Territory | Great Britain. Northern Ireland runs to G98/NI and is unresolved |
Engineering Recommendation G98 governs connection. The change admitting these devices was proposed by the Energy Networks Association on 1 April 2026 and approved in an Ofgem decision dated 11 August 2026, taking effect alongside the product regulations. The 28 days and the five to ten minutes are described in the department's final stage impact assessment, which sets out an intended process rather than a penalty.
The product specification would permit one device per final ring circuit. The connection rules narrow that to one per household, and the narrower of the two is the one in force.
On the index charts that matters, because every figure on this site describes a single compliant device. There is no version of this where you buy two and double the numbers.