Live network coverage

Where Headroom can screen today.

Every GB network operator returns a cited verdict. Here is exactly which half of the picture is live in your patch.

UK Power NetworksFull screening
Northern PowergridVerdicts live
Electricity North WestFull screening
SP Energy NetworksFull screening
NGEDQueue live
SSENQueue live
Four of six groups fully screened · all six return a verdict · 14 licence areas
Coverage detail

What is live, network by network

NetworkSubstation headroomConnection queue
UK Power Networks
Eastern · London · South Eastern
Live, queried per screen Live, queried per screen
Northern Powergrid
North East · Yorkshire
Live, 1,881 substations Live, 2,755 connections
Electricity North West
North West England
Live, 367 primaries Live, 3,099 connections
SP Energy Networks
SP Distribution · SP Manweb
Live, 1,261 sites Partial, 1,306 connections
National Grid Electricity Distribution
Midlands · South West · South Wales
Building Live, 7,036 connections
SSEN
Scottish Hydro · Southern
Building Live, 5,625 connections

Two halves, filled in separately. A useful verdict needs two things: how much spare capacity the local substation has, and who is already in the queue for it. Every DNO publishes both, in a different format and on a different schedule. We ingest, validate and calibrate one at a time, and we would rather show you exactly which half is live in your patch than claim national coverage.

Why it matters

Around half of domestic applications come back export-restricted.

Across 136 applications in the domestic market, roughly one in two returned with an export restriction. Grid headroom is the single biggest variable in whether a solar or battery job completes, and the one an installer can least see before quoting.

Grid briefing

Two things worth knowing

29 Jul 2026

The queue you are screening against is being cleaned up.

Ofgem opened a consultation on 29 July: a refundable commitment fee and tougher milestones for large data centre connections, after a threefold rise in demand connection applications in under a year. It does not apply to G98 or G99.

It matters to an installer because the projects sitting ahead of you must increasingly prove financial capability and procurement progress to keep their place. Some will not. When they drop out, headroom moves. A capacity answer from six months ago is not the answer today.

27 Aug 2026

Plug-in solar becomes legal, and every unit is notifiable.

Compliant products get a legal route onto the UK market: 800 VA maximum inverter output, up to 2,000 W of panels, no battery. Most kits on UK shelves today include one.

The part most buyers will miss: a plug-in unit is generation connected to the network, so it is notifiable under G98 exactly like a rooftop system. The product specification moved to one device per final ring circuit on 16 July, while G98 still caps output at 800 VA per household. An imported balcony kit does not become legal on 27 August.