Futureproof your power

If your equipment is already compliant, please let us know by submitting a declaration to your DNO. It’s important you do this so we know you’ve checked your set up and to avoid us contacting you unnecessarily.

Use our self-serve tool to check if you need to upgrade your equipment. The tool will also provide clear next steps if you do need to make any changes and helps you to start your funding request.

It is your responsibility as a generator owner/operator to ensure that your equipment is compliant. If you haven’t heard from your DNO or any other organisation about the changes then you still need to check your equipment and take an action to make a change if it is not compliant. If it is compliant then please declare this with your DNO by getting in touch with them directly.

By becoming compliant you will make your generation more reliable. This will mean it is less likely to trip off, ensuring more consistent generation and a steadier income stream.

More widely, by becoming compliant you will help strengthen the electricity network – this will help deliver cost savings to consumers and it will also embed the network with more resilience, meaning that more renewable electricity can be brought online, helping us meet the UK’s low carbon ambitions.

You can quickly check if your equipment is compliant using our knowledge base. This provides an alphabetical list of manufacturers with guidance on whether their equipment is compliant or not.

You can enlist the support of a contractor, who can assess your equipment and make the changes on behalf of you, or your organisation. The ENA has a directory of self-declared competent contractors who can support you with this, or you can search for a local competent contractor that can undertake G59 upgrade works.

No – there is no compulsion to use a contractor. You can complete the settings changes yourself, if you have the sufficient technical knowledge to do so. Or, your own contractors or site management teams can complete the settings changes.

The deadline for compliance was 1 September 2022.

This programme does not apply to domestic and similar generation that has been connected under EREC G83. It only applies to generation connected before 1 February 2018 or 1 July 2018 for inverters in accordance with EREC G59.

If you find that your equipment is already compliant you must still inform your DNO to ensure that your assets are registered correctly.

All generators that are connected to the distribution networks in Great Britain have Loss of Mains protection, one of the many protection requirements on the electricity system.

This applies to generating plants that run in long-term parallel with the distribution network and are within the scope of EREC G59, regardless of the type of generator, such as PV, wind or gas. Loss of Mains is designed to check if a generator is still connected to the supply network. Updated EREC G59 requirements must be implemented by generation owners by 1 September 2022.

Where LoM is provided by vector shift, it must be removed and/or replaced with Rate of Change of Frequency Protection (RoCoF). RoCoF is the rate at which frequency changes and is used to detect the absence of the connection to the system and disconnects the site if that RoCoF exceeds a specific value. The RoCoF setting requirement has been changed to 1 Hz/s with a definite time delay of 500 milliseconds. It will mean National Grid ESO will be able to operate the grid more efficiently.

Most of the costs incurred in managing the LoM risk on the electricity transmission system are to limit the RoCoF to below 0.125Hz/s. Currently NGESO is limiting the RoCoF to below 0.125Hz/s so that generators with RoCoF protection are not inadvertently tripped. The costs are significant and are paid for by all of us through our electricity bills. These costs could be reduced if RoCoF above 0.125Hz/s was allowed. To achieve this, we need to change the RoCoF settings at all sites where RoCoF protection has an existing setting of 0.5Hz/s or less.

You can find out what evidence you need to submit on your DNOs website. Generally pre and post changes photographs should be provided along with G59 test certification to support your declaration of compliance. For any DNO specific requirements visit your local DNO website.