“Will it keep the lights on?” is one of the first things people ask about a home battery, and in Redhill the honest answer starts with the network rather than the battery. This guide covers which network Redhill is on, what Ofgem’s published reliability figures say, how the connection rules treat a battery, and what it takes to get backup power if you want it. For the wider decision, including where a battery fits in Redhill’s mix of Victorian terraces and new flats, see our page on battery storage in Redhill.
Redhill’s network operator
The Redhill town-centre point sits in UK Power Networks’ South Eastern Power Networks licence area, about 16 km from the nearest edge of another network, so the town as a whole is firmly on the UKPN side of Surrey’s network split. The network operator is not your energy supplier: UKPN owns the cables and handles connections and power cuts, while your supplier bills you and pays for any export. When a battery or solar system goes in at an RH1 address, it is UKPN that the installer notifies.
What Ofgem’s figures show
Ofgem publishes reliability by licence area, not by town. For South Eastern Power Networks in 2024/25, it reports about 42.2 supply interruptions per 100 customers and about 30.4 customer minutes lost per customer over the year, planned and unplanned together. Both are within Ofgem’s targets for the area (42.5 and 31.2), and both improved on 2023/24, when the figures were 49.5 and 36.5. For comparison, the sector-wide figures for 2024/25 were 39.7 and 35.1. Ofgem notes that severe-weather adjustments were applied from network operators’ submissions, so treat these as reported figures. None of this says Redhill has a problem; it gives you a sense of scale when deciding whether backup is worth paying for.
A battery is not backup by default
A standard grid-tied solar and battery system shuts down when the grid goes down. That is a safety requirement: it stops the system feeding power into cables that engineers are working on. So a battery installed in the usual way will not keep a Redhill kitchen running during a cut, however full it is.
Backup is possible, but it has to be designed in. It typically means a system that can isolate the house from the grid automatically and supply a chosen set of circuits, such as the fridge, lighting and the router, from the battery. EnSmart’s SolarAll-H, one of the systems we quote, publishes a UPS function with a 10-millisecond switchover for systems designed with backup capability. If outage cover is part of why you want a battery, say so before the design is fixed: it changes the hardware, the wiring and the price, and it is cheaper to plan than to retrofit.
G98, G99 and export limits
The connection rules are the same across UKPN’s area, and they apply to batteries as well as panels. Under ENA EREC G98 Issue 2, type-tested systems up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) are notified before commissioning or within 28 days after it. Anything larger needs a G99 application approved before work starts, and a 4 kW inverter, at 17.39 A, is just over the line. UKPN’s own page adds a useful detail: if the maximum export of an installation, after any export limitation, is under 5 kW, it approves the application automatically. Export limitation lets a system with a larger inverter cap what it sends to the grid, which can matter on Redhill’s larger detached homes, where a bigger array and battery are more likely.
Through UKPN’s Smart Connect, approved installers working on a house up to 69 kVA whose supply can take the new equipment notify within 28 days of installation, and the service covers solar PV and battery storage forms. Occasionally UKPN finds the supply is not sufficient and needs upgrading first; it says there is nothing to pay if no upgrade is needed, and that upgrade costs and timings vary when one is.
Redhill homes and the paperwork
Redhill’s housing is an even mix: roughly 27.8% detached, 27.1% semi-detached, 21.8% terraced and 19.5% flats across RH1. A modest battery on a three-bedroom semi usually stays a straightforward notification. A larger system on a detached house is more likely to need G99 or export limitation. Flats, including the newer apartments around Marketfield Way, bring freeholder consent into it before the grid does. For sizing, our guide on what size home battery you need sets out the method, and our guide to battery storage without solar panels covers backup on standalone systems.
Where to go next
Our solar panels Redhill page covers the conservation areas, Article 4 directions and the town’s housing, and the solar panels Surrey hub covers the county. Energy Action Redhill and Reigate, a local community benefit society, offers free home energy surveys if you want independent eyes on your home first. If backup is not worth it for your household, the survey should say so plainly.
Sources: NESO GB DNO licence area boundaries (May 2024) and UK Power Networks licence boundaries (December 2024); Ofgem, RIIO-2 Electricity Distribution annual report 2024 to 2025 and supplementary datafile (published 15 January 2026); ENA EREC G98 Issue 2 (10 March 2025); UK Power Networks, Smart Connect and Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved; EnSmart, SolarAll-H published specification; ONS Census 2021 (RH1 accommodation type); Reigate & Banstead Borough Council, The Rise, Marketfield Way; Energy Action Redhill and Reigate, Who we are.