Five questions a buyer might ask about independent connection providers, run once on 1 October 2026, returned 48 search results. Twenty-nine were firms describing themselves. The public NERS register, which lists every accredited ICP and ranks none of them, came first on the two questions that used its own wording and did not appear on the other three. The only third party ranking ICPs by name was an undated top-ten list with no stated method.
Assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity build their shortlists from material like this. When it is thin, the shortlist goes to whichever firm wrote the clearest page about itself.
How the sample was taken
Five questions in UK phrasing, written the way different buyers would ask them: “independent connection provider UK”, “NERS accredited ICP list”, “best independent connection providers UK”, “ICP for 11kV connection” and “who can do a new HV connection instead of the DNO”.
Each ran once on 1 October 2026. Every result was recorded in order and classified by kind of source. Firms and list publishers are described by type, never named; registers, regulators and network operators are institutions, so they are.
What this sample does not show
- What any assistant said. These are search results, the material assistants draw on, not their answers. No ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot or Google AI screenshot was taken.
- What a buyer in Britain sees on Google UK. The search tool used runs from the United States, so ranks will differ; the mix of source kinds is the steadier finding.
- Anything stable. Each question ran once, on one day. Results move with location, session and date.
- A full page of ten. Two of the five questions returned nine results; counts are of what came back.
- Whether any firm here is accredited, good or bad at its work. Where a firm was not found in the register, nothing is inferred from that.
What were the 48 results?
| Kind of source | Results |
|---|---|
| ICPs' own pages | 27 |
| DNO or network operator pages | 5 |
| Off topic (four about broadband, one about healthcare) | 5 |
| Regulator or local government documents | 3 |
| The NERS register | 2 |
| One top-ten list, appearing twice | 2 |
| A cable maker's product pages | 2 |
| The network operators' industry body guide | 1 |
| An energy comparison site's guide | 1 |
| All results | 48 |
Four results named an ICP from the outside: the register twice and the same list twice. There were no tender notices and no trade press. Battery storage, sampled the same day, had 22 such results out of 46.
Where does the NERS register rank?
The register is the one source that knows who is accredited for what. It is public, needs no login, and on 1 October listed 538 providers. It filters by region, by service from LV to 132kV, and by site type, and sorts by relevance or A to Z, with no ranking and no ratings. Each entry shows the DNO areas covered, every scope of approval by voltage, any partial accreditation and a named contact.
Buyer question
“NERS accredited ICP list”
What came back
The register took the top spot. The rest of the page was ICPs saying they are accredited, one announcing its own accreditation, and three network operator explainers.
Sources, by kind
- Own pageICPs describing themselves: 6
- NetworkNetwork operator pages: 3
- RegisterThe NERS register, run by LRQA, at rank one: 1
Our readingA buyer who already knows the scheme's name is sent straight to the list of every accredited firm. Nothing on the page says which of them to call.
Search results sampled 1 Oct 2026 through a search tool that runs from the US, not Google UK; one run; ten results. Not an assistant answer. Method on /how-we-measure. Firms described, not named.
The register also ranked first on “ICP for 11kV connection”, the other question in its own vocabulary. On the three questions phrased without that vocabulary it did not appear. So the most authoritative record in this market is found by buyers who already know what to look for, and missed by the rest.
Why does “best” return broadband?
Four of the nine results were about broadband. The word “providers” pulled in a different industry.
Buyer question
“best independent connection providers UK”
What came back
Four broadband results, three ICPs' own pages, an undated top-ten list with no stated method, and an energy comparison site's guide. The guide names no firm and tells readers to check the NERS register, with a link.
Sources, by kind
- Off topicBroadband pages: 4
- Own pageICPs describing themselves: 3
- ListA top-ten list on an unrelated content site: 1
- ComparisonA comparison site's guide pointing to the register: 1
Our readingThe only page that sent the buyer to the register was written by a comparison site, not by any ICP.
Search results sampled 1 Oct 2026 through a search tool that runs from the US, not Google UK; one run; nine results. Not an assistant answer. Method on /how-we-measure. Firms and publishers described, not named.
Who ranks ICPs by name?
One page, on an unrelated content site. It is a top-ten list of independent connection providers with a 2023 copyright line, no date on the article, no stated method and no disclosure of any relationship with the firms in it. It appeared on two of the five questions, ranking ninth and fifth.
That is the only ranking of ICPs on these five pages. An assistant looking for a source that compares ICPs has this list and nothing else.
Age is a problem elsewhere too. On the 11kV question a 2017 explainer still ranked eighth, from a firm since reported wound up in the trade press.
Do ICPs point buyers to the register?
We took the first five distinct ICP firms to appear in the results, opened each one's ICP page on 1 October and checked three things.
| ICP | Claims NERS | Links register | In register by name |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICP A | Yes | No | Yes |
| ICP B | Yes | No | Yes |
| ICP C | Yes | No | Yes |
| ICP D | Yes | No | Not found |
| ICP E | Yes | No | Not found |
| All five | 5 of 5 | 0 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
All five claim the accreditation. None of the five links to its register entry or prints a certificate number. Three were found in the register under their trading names. The other two were not, which may only mean they are listed under a different legal name, so we draw no conclusion about their accreditation.
To an assistant, “NERS accredited” on a firm's own page is one more thing the firm says about itself.
What does a buyer without the jargon see?
A housebuilder or an estates team may not know the term ICP. They ask something closer to “who can do a new HV connection instead of the DNO”. That question was answered by Ofgem, a DNO and the network operators' industry body, and none of them names a firm. The DNO page links its own alternative-providers page, not the register.
The five firms present were explaining IDNOs and DNOs on their own pages, one through a social platform article. Nothing compared the firms that can do the work.
What an ICP can do about it
Link your register entry from your ICP page and print your scopes by voltage beside it. The record already exists, so this is the cheapest corroboration in the market, and an assistant reading your page can then check the claim.
Write for the buyer who does not know your vocabulary. A page that answers “can someone other than the DNO do my connection?” in plain words, from a firm that can do the work, would have had that question almost to itself on 1 October.
Get named by somebody else. The trade press did not appear once in these 48 results. A project write-up in a trade title, or a mention in a guide buyers already read, gives an assistant something independent to repeat.
And check your old pages. If a 2017 page from a firm reported wound up can still rank on an 11kV question, your own stale pages are being read too.
This is the work the grid and storage marketing programme does. It starts with the Pipeline Diagnostic: your five buyer questions run through the assistants themselves, with dated screenshots. What registers and trade bodies cost across the sector is in NERS accreditation cost, and the other registers.
Quick answers
- Is there a list of independent connection providers in the UK?
- Yes. The NERS register, run by LRQA for the DNOs, is public and needs no login. On 1 October 2026 it listed 538 providers, filterable by region, by voltage and scope and by site type. It sorts by relevance or A to Z and does not rank or rate anyone.
- Which ICPs does AI recommend?
- We did not screenshot assistant answers for this sample. What we recorded is the search material assistants draw on. On 1 October 2026 it was mostly ICPs describing themselves, plus the NERS register on two questions and one undated top-ten list with no stated method. An assistant building a shortlist from that has little independent to go on.
- How do I check whether an ICP is NERS accredited?
- Search the NERS register on LRQA's site by company name, then read the scopes of approval, which are listed by activity and voltage. The register lists legal entity names, so a trading name may not match. Partial accreditation is marked: the first stage, with systems in place but not yet demonstrated.
- Why does a search for the best ICPs return broadband results?
- Because the word providers pulls in a different industry. On 1 October 2026 four of the nine results for best independent connection providers UK were about broadband. A buyer who does not know the scheme's vocabulary is shown a muddier page than one who does.
- Can these numbers be quoted?
- Yes, with attribution to KS Media and a link to this page, provided the limits travel with them: five questions run once on 1 October 2026 through a search tool that runs from the US rather than Google UK, search results rather than assistant answers, and nine results rather than ten on two of the five.
Run the same check on your own firm
Five of your buyers' questions, run by hand through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers rather than a search tool, with a dated screenshot of every answer. Free, back within three working days, by the published method. If you are not named, the Pipeline Diagnostic says why and what it is costing you.