Solar and your network operator: Northern Scotland

Northern Scotland is served by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. If you are installing solar here, this is the organisation that must be told — and, above 3.68 kW, the one that must agree before anything is installed.

Northern Scotland is served by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.

Distributor ID: 17. That is the first two digits of the MPAN on your electricity bill, and it is the most reliable way to confirm your operator without a lookup.

Roughly, the area covers the highlands and islands, the north east and much of central scotland — but licence areas follow cables rather than county lines, so treat that as orientation and check your bill.

What the network operator does, and what it does not

Your supplier sells you electricity and can be switched tomorrow. Your network operator owns the poles, cables and substations, cannot be switched at all, and is the organisation with a view on what your solar installation is permitted to do.

For a solar owner that matters in three specific ways:

  • Notification or permission. For a domestic solar installation in Northern Scotland, the process is the one set out in G98 and G99: connect and notify within 28 days up to 16 A per phase — 3.68 kW single-phase — and apply first above it. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks runs that process for this area.
  • Export limitation. Where the local network cannot take full export, the operator can require the installation to be limited — see export limiting. It restricts what you can sell, not what you can use.
  • Refusal or conditions. If the answer is no, or yes-with-conditions, the route is set out in when your DNO refuses.

Confirming your operator, three ways

1. Your bill. Find the MPAN — the block of numbers usually labelled “supply number”. The first two digits are the Distributor ID, and for Northern Scotland that is 17.

2. The postcode lookup. The Energy Networks Association runs a postcode tool.

3. Call 105. Free from anywhere in England, Scotland or Wales, and it connects you to the operator for your area.

What your installer should do

On a normal domestic installation the installer handles the network side. What you should confirm, in writing:

  1. Which process applies — notify-after or apply-first — and therefore the timetable.
  2. That the notification was actually made, and a copy for your records.
  3. Whether any export limitation has been applied, and at what level.
  4. The registered capacity recorded, which is the inverter rating rather than the panel total.

That paperwork matters years later: it is one of the documents a buyer’s conveyancer asks for when you sell — see selling a house with solar.

If you are adding to an existing system

Adding panels or replacing an inverter changes the registered capacity, and a change is notifiable. It can also move you from the simpler process to the one that needs permission first. Upgrading a developer-fitted system covers the sequence, and it applies equally to any existing installation.

Sources

  1. Find my network operator Energy Networks Association · Accessed 20 August 2026 Current operator names and the areas each serves.
  2. Which DNO does my Distributor ID correspond to? Energy Networks Association · Accessed 20 August 2026 Distributor ID to licence area mapping. Dated 2021 and names Western Power Distribution, now National Grid Electricity Distribution — we take the IDs from here and the names from the current page.
  3. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks · Accessed 20 August 2026
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