Your DNO Region: Why It Matters and How to Find and Set It

When you compare tariffs on Heat Pump Tariffs, the prices you're scored against aren't national averages — they're the actual unit rates and standing charges for your part of the country. That's because electricity distribution in Great Britain is split into regions, and the same supplier can charge different prices depending on which region you're in.

Which means one setting quietly shapes every comparison you'll ever run: your DNO region. Get it right and your results reflect real prices on your doorstep. Get it wrong and every tariff is priced for somewhere else — and you'd never see an obvious error, just subtly wrong numbers. This guide explains what a DNO region is, how to find yours, and how to set it.

What a DNO region actually is

A DNO — Distribution Network Operator — is the company that owns and maintains the physical electricity network in your area: the cables, substations and connections that deliver power to your home. It's not the same as your energy supplier.

Your supplier (Octopus, EDF, British Gas, and so on) is who you pay and who sends your bills. You can switch supplier whenever you like. Your DNO, by contrast, is fixed by where you live — it's a regional monopoly, so you don't choose it. Great Britain is divided into 14 of these distribution regions, and each one is identified by a two-digit code.

This matters for pricing because distribution costs differ from region to region, and those costs are baked into the unit rates and standing charges suppliers offer. A tariff that looks cheap in one region can be pricier in another. So to compare accurately, the site needs to know which region's prices to use — and that's exactly what your DNO region setting tells it.

How to find your DNO region

There are two reliable ways.

Method 1: From your MPAN (recommended)

Your MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number) is a 21-digit number that identifies your electricity supply point. It's printed on your electricity bill — often called your "Supply Number" or "S-number" because it sits next to a letter S in a box. It's laid out as two rows of digits.

The number you want is the first two digits of the bottom row — this is your Distributor ID, and it's always a number between 10 and 23. That two-digit code is your DNO region code.

So the process is simply: find the S-number on your bill, read the first two digits of the bottom row, and remember that two-digit number. You'll select the matching code on the site in a moment.

Method 2: Call 105

If you can't find a bill or your MPAN isn't to hand, dial 105 from any phone (it's free). You'll be connected to your local network operator, who can confirm your region for you.

Worked example

Suppose the bottom row of your MPAN begins with 12. That's your Distributor ID. When you go to set your region, you'd choose the option beginning 12 from the dropdown — which on Heat Pump Tariffs is 12 — London (UK Power Networks). The dropdown spells out the area and network operator next to each code, so you can sanity-check that the code matches roughly where you live.

How to set your region on Heat Pump Tariffs

1. Go to your Profile page.
2. Find the DNO Region card. If you haven't set a region yet, you'll see a prompt explaining that you need one before comparisons can run.
3. Open the Select Your Region dropdown. Each entry is shown as code — area (network operator), e.g. "12 — London (UK Power Networks)".
4. Pick the entry whose code matches the two digits from your MPAN. Don't pick by area name alone — the code is the reliable part, since regional boundaries don't always follow the town names you'd expect.
5. Click Update Region.

You'll get a confirmation, and from then on every comparison uses your region's prices. If you ever change it later, the site keeps a history of your past regions and flags any earlier comparisons that were run under a different region, so your trend data stays honest.

Common mistakes

• Confusing your supplier with your DNO. These are different things. "I'm with Octopus" doesn't tell you your region — Octopus serves every region. You need the code from your MPAN, not your supplier's name.
• Reading the wrong row of the MPAN. The Distributor ID is the first two digits of the bottom row of the S-number, not the top row. The top row holds different technical codes that have nothing to do with your region.
• Picking by area name instead of code. Region names are broad and boundaries don't always match intuition — a town you think of as "southern" may sit in a different distribution region. Always match the two-digit code first; treat the area name as a secondary sanity check.
• Forgetting to update after a house move. Your DNO region is tied to your property, not to you. If you move, your old region's prices will no longer reflect your bills — check your new MPAN and update your region. The site will flag any comparisons that pre-date the change.
• Leaving it unset. Comparisons can't run accurately without a region. If you see a prompt saying no region is set, that's the first thing to fix.

Once your region is set correctly, you're ready to compare — and you can trust that the prices you're being shown are the ones that actually apply where you live.