GUIDE · FOR UK SOLAR INSTALLERS · 10 MIN READ

ENA Connect Direct: A Step-by-Step Guide for Solar Installers

to use, provided by the UK's network operators

Free

to use, provided by the UK's network operators

installing: every application is pre-installation

Before

installing: every application is pre-installation

for a decision when every automated check passes

Minutes

for a decision when every automated check passes

devices on its live register on 9 Nov 2026

9,743

devices on its live register on 9 Nov 2026

If you fit solar on homes as well as businesses, Connect Direct is where the domestic paperwork now starts. If you only do commercial roofs, you still need it, because its device register is where you find an inverter's reference for a G98 or G99 form.

Everything below is from Connect Direct's own pages and the ENA's connection guide, read on 9 November 2026. Connect Direct is still being developed, so check its FAQs for changes.

What ENA Connect Direct is

Connect Direct describes itself as a national platform developed by the UK's Distribution Network Operators in partnership with the Energy Networks Association (ENA). It replaces the paper forms for domestic low-carbon technology (LCT) connections with one online process that is the same for every application you send to a GB or Northern Ireland network operator and most IDNOs.

It has three groups of users:

• Installers apply for approval before fitting solar PV, batteries, EV charge points or heat pumps to an existing home, and send the commissioning information afterwards.
• Manufacturers register their devices with the ENA, get them assessed and make them available for installers to pick.
• Customers don't use it themselves, but get written confirmation of approval to install.

It costs nothing: Connect Direct's FAQ says the network operators provide it free of charge.

Which applications go through Connect Direct

The short version: domestic, before installation. What Connect Direct and the ENA guide say for each kind of job:

The ENA guide adds that installers who can use Connect Direct may still use the paper-based process instead, and that for a domestic G99-sized system, Connect Direct can be used as an alternative way to submit the application. Our guide to the G99 application covers the forms route.

How to register your company on Connect Direct

1. 1

   Create an account and sign in

   Use Sign Up / Log In on connect-direct.energynetworks.org. Use your company email address: accounts link to your company by its email domain.

2. 2

   Register your company (first person only)

   Pick "Register Company" during set-up and follow the steps. Whoever registers the company becomes its Company Administrator.

3. 3

   Add your team

   Colleagues sign up with the same company email domain and are linked automatically, but the Company Administrator must approve each one. Without company email addresses, they need an invitation from the administrator.

4. 4

   Set up multi-factor authentication

   Download an authenticator app such as Google or Microsoft Authenticator, scan the QR code on the MFA screen and enter the code it shows. An administrator in your organisation can reset someone's MFA.

As Company Administrator you can invite team members, approve new users and see every application your team submits. Connect Direct has a short video on its home page that walks through first-time registration.

How to submit a Connect Direct application, step by step

Connect Direct asks you to have these to hand:

• The installation property's postcode or site location.
• The customer's personal details. Connect Direct uses them to email the customer once you're approved.
• Your company details.
• The installation details.
• The make and model of each device, which you pick from the device register.
• The MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number), if the address can't be found.
• Supporting information, such as a photo of the cut-out.

1. 1

   Gather the details

   Postcode or site location, customer details, your company details, installation details, the device make and model, the MPAN if the address isn't found, and a photo of the cut-out.

2. 2

   Start the application before you install

   Every Connect Direct application is made pre-installation. Put every low-carbon technology going in at the property into one application.

3. 3

   Pick each device from the register

   Choose the make and model from Connect Direct's device register, which holds the products manufacturers have registered with the ENA.

4. 4

   Let the decision engine assess it

   It checks the cut-out and supply equipment, supply capacity, looped supplies, whether a network upgrade is needed, maximum demand, equipment compliance and the DNO's approval thresholds.

5. 5

   Approved, or escalated to the DNO

   If every check passes, the application is approved automatically in real time. If not, it goes to the DNO for review, and updates come back through Connect Direct.

6. 6

   Install, then submit the commissioning form

   Once approved, complete the commissioning form from the My Applications tab (or through the API if you're integrated).

Who is responsible for the data? Anyone instructed to install the technology can submit, including an installer acting for the customer, but Connect Direct says it remains the connecting customer's responsibility that the correct data goes in. In practice that means you: check the MPAN, the cut-out photo and the device model before you press submit.

How Connect Direct assesses an application

A data-driven decision engine checks, among other things:

• the safety of the cut-out and supply equipment;
• whether the supply capacity is sufficient;
• whether the property is on a looped supply;
• whether a network upgrade is needed;
• whether the property's maximum demand is within the DNO's thresholds;
• equipment compliance, and whether the equipment is within the DNO's approval thresholds.

Pass every check and it is approved automatically in real time. Fail one and it is escalated to the DNO for review. Each DNO sets its own auto-approval thresholds, and they can vary from area to area, so the same system can sail through in one place and go to review in another. Give it a clear cut-out photo and pick devices that show as Compliant on the register.

The Connect Direct device register

Connect Direct's Live Device Register is headed "Search the ENA Type Test Register". The ENA closed its old Type Test Register on 16 April 2024 and moved all its data to Connect Direct, and devices registered before Connect Direct launched in May 2024 were migrated across. On 9 November 2026 it listed 9,743 devices, each with a System Reference, a compliance status, the manufacturer, model, category, type, capacity in kW and phase.

How to search it, what each status means and what to do when a product isn't there are in our guide to the ENA Type Test Register.

Connect Direct vs the G98 and G99 forms

For a commercial solar installer the split is simple:

• Domestic jobs: apply on Connect Direct before you install, then commission there.
• Non-domestic jobs: use the forms. A small, Fully Type Tested system at one premises is a G98 notification (Form B) within 28 days of commissioning; anything bigger is a G99 application before installation, with a G100 form if export is limited.
• Either way: look the inverter and battery up on the device register. On a G99 form, a Fully Type Tested unit's reference is all the ENA guide says you need to show compliance.

Not sure which network operator a site is on? The first two digits of the MPAN tell you; see our DNO application guide.

Submitting through the Connect Direct API

Connect Direct offers installers and software providers an API to submit applications to the DNOs and receive updates. Pick "Software Provider" when you register and you get OpenAPI-standard documentation, a sandbox for testing and access to the support portal, where you raise a ticket for sandbox and production API keys. The ENA guide notes the API is one way to make multiple applications in the same area.

Getting help with Connect Direct

Log in and raise a ticket in the Connect Direct Support Portal, or email connectdirect@energynetworks.org. If you can't get past multi-factor authentication, ask your company's administrator to reset it from their User Management Portal.

The paperwork is the easy part once you're doing the work. If finding commercial jobs is the harder part, Solar Surveys UK books qualified commercial solar survey appointments with business owners. You only pay for appointments that are actually attended; see how to get commercial solar leads for every channel compared.

ENA Connect Direct: FAQ