Live network coverage

Where Headroom can screen today.

Headroom screens sites against each Distribution Network Operator's published capacity and constraint data. Coverage rolls out DNO by DNO, this is exactly where we stand right now.

6 GB DNO groups · 14 licence areas · live capacity & constraint data
Coverage board

DNO coverage status

Great Britain's networks are run by six DNO groups across fourteen licence areas. Here is what Headroom screens against today.

UK Power Networks

Eastern · London · South Eastern
Full screening
Substation headroomLive, queried per screen
Connection queueLive, queried per screen
Everything Headroom does. PURSUE / CAUTION / AVOID verdicts, generation headroom at the likely point of connection, and the projects ahead of you in the queue.

Northern Powergrid

North East · Yorkshire
Verdicts live
Substation headroomLive, 1,881 substations
Connection queueLive, 2,755 connections
Full verdict and substation headroom from the Northern Powergrid network development plan, with the queue cross-reference live from 3 August 2026.

Electricity North West

North West England
Full screening
Substation headroomLive, 367 primaries
Connection queueLive, 3,099 connections
Full verdict and queue. The primary substation heatmap went live on 4 August 2026, alongside the embedded capacity register. Export-restriction rates run high here, between two thirds and five sixths of nearby connections in the towns we have sampled.

National Grid Electricity Distribution

East & West Midlands · South West · South Wales
Queue live
Substation headroomBuilding
Connection queueLive, 7,036 connections
Register held and refreshed monthly, including export-restriction rates, which run high in this territory. Capacity heatmap ingest is in progress.

SSEN

Scottish Hydro · Southern
Queue live
Substation headroomBuilding
Connection queueLive, 5,625 connections
Register held and refreshed monthly, with target energisation dates on effectively every row. Capacity heatmap ingest is in progress.

SP Energy Networks

SP Distribution (Scotland) · SP Manweb (Merseyside & N Wales)
Full screening
Substation headroomLive, 1,261 sites
Connection queuePartial, 1,306 connections
Full verdict and queue, live from 4 August 2026, across both licence areas. The capacity heatmaps are not visible without an account, which is why this took a registration rather than a build.
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. Registers we hold ourselves were last refreshed 12 July 2026 and update monthly; UK Power Networks and Northern Powergrid are queried live at the moment you screen.
The constraint picture

Why the network status matters

Grid headroom is the single biggest variable in whether a solar or battery job completes. It is also the one installers can least see before they quote.

~50%
come back export-restricted
domestic market, 136 applications
6
DNO groups across GB
14 licence areas total
Live
capacity & constraint data
calibrated per network
Policy watch

The queue you are screening against is being cleaned up.

Connections policy is moving in one direction: capacity goes to projects that can evidence they are ready, not to whoever applied first. Two things worth knowing, and one that is often misread.

29 Jul
Ofgem consultation opened
refundable commitment fee & tougher milestones for large data centre connections
3×
rise in demand connection applications
in under a year, per Ofgem
Not you
it does not apply to G98 or G99
the proposal targets large data centre demand connections

So why does it matter to an installer? Because the projects sitting ahead of you in the queue are increasingly required to prove financial capability, commercial maturity and procurement progress in order to keep their place. Some will not. When they drop out, headroom moves. A capacity answer you were given six months ago is not the answer today, and neither a stale DNO reply nor a rule of thumb will tell you that. Screening against live data will.

Source: Ofgem press release and consultation, 29 July 2026, on tackling speculative data centre projects in the electricity connections queue.

Policy watch

27 August: plug-in solar becomes legal, and every unit is notifiable.

The regulations are made and come into force on 27 August 2026. Compliant products get a legal route onto the UK market and can be plugged into a standard socket. The detail is narrower than the headlines suggest, and one part of it lands directly on installers.

800 VA
maximum inverter output
3.5 A AC max, up to 2,000 W of panels
No battery
storage is excluded
most kits on UK shelves today include one
G98
notification still applies
plug-in solar is grid-connected generation

That last one is the part most buyers will miss. A plug-in unit is generation connected to the network, so it is notifiable under G98 in the same way a rooftop system is. There is also a mismatch worth knowing about: the product specification moved to one device per final ring circuit on 16 July, while G98 still caps output at 800 VA per household. A second device on a second circuit is not automatically permitted.

Only complete products meeting the official Interim Product Specification qualify. An imported balcony kit, or a microinverter fitted with a UK plug, does not become legal on 27 August. Expect to be asked both questions by customers who have already bought something.

Sources: the plug-in solar regulations and government response, with the Interim Product Specification, in force 27 August 2026. Headroom generates and lodges G98 notifications, including for plug-in units.

Screen a site on a live network

UK Power Networks is live now. Type a postcode and get a verdict before you quote.

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