Siteworks is the groundworks layer of a new connection: the excavation, trenching, ducting, joint bays, substation bases, mole-ploughing and reinstatement that physically get the cable or pipe to your boundary. Most of it is contestable, so it can be tendered. Below is a directory of UK siteworks and civils contractors, the checks that separate a qualified firm from a logo, and the public registers you can verify each one on yourself.
A new connection splits into work only the network can do and work you can compete for. The non-contestable part (determining the point of connection and the final energisation onto the live network) is fixed whoever you appoint. The contestable part is the civils, and that is what the firms below deliver. Understanding which is which is the whole game, and it is set out in full on our new energy connections hub.
Excavation, open-cut trenching, mole-ploughing across open ground, ducting, joint bays, cable pulling and substation bases. This is the part an accredited contractor can compete for against the network price.
Highway opening under street-works permits, traffic management and reinstatement of the road or footway to standard afterwards. Unqualified street works are illegal and invalidate reinstatement guarantees.
The finished assets are then transferred to a DNO or IDNO to own and operate. Many siteworks firms are accredited ICPs too, so they can self-deliver the design and build, not just the digging.
Siteworks rarely stands alone. It sits underneath the design-and-build provider and the adopting network owner, so it is worth reading this directory alongside the UK connection providers directory (the ICPs, IDNOs and IGTs), the new electricity connection guide, and what a new connection costs so you can see where the civils fit in the wider price stack.
Several of these firms are accredited ICPs in their own right; they appear here because the page is about the siteworks layer. Use the role chips to see who self-delivers civils only and who also designs and builds the connection.
AIM Utilities Ltd (Dudley, West Midlands)
Utilities: Electricity, Gas, Water, Telecoms
Independent connections provider offering utility planning, project management and installation across electricity, gas and water on a nationwide basis, including the connection civils.
AIS Utilities Ltd (London)
Utilities: Electricity, Gas, Water
Multi-utility ICP providing new electricity, gas and water connections and contestable works across all utility disciplines, with in-house civils design and engineering.
Bethell Group plc (Kearsley, Manchester); est. 1865
Utilities: Electricity, Gas, Water, Telecoms
Independent connections provider delivering turnkey multi-utility connections with a substantial in-house civils arm covering groundworks, trenching, ducting, reinstatement, drainage, highways, structures and tunnelling.
Ground Utilities Ltd (Cottenham, Cambridgeshire)
Utilities: Electricity, Multi-utility
NERS-accredited civils and groundworks contractor self-delivering electrical infrastructure civils (cable installation and ducting for 11kV and 33kV circuits), groundworks, and civils for battery-storage and solar projects with its own plant.
M.D. Groundworks (South) Ltd (Surrey)
Utilities: Electricity
NERS-accredited power and civils contractor delivering duct and cable installation, joint bays, concrete formwork, substation building and traffic management, self-delivered with in-house teams and plant.
TriConnex Ltd (Braintree)
Utilities: Electricity, Gas, Water, Fibre
Multi-utility connections provider focused on residential housebuilders, designing and installing electricity, water and wastewater, gas and fibre infrastructure on new-build developments, including the civils and connection works.
The civils are live cable and gas works in and around the public highway, the highest-risk dimension of a connection. Five checks matter more than the headline price.
NERS proves an ICP can design and build electricity connections to network standards. It is scoped: a firm accredited only for LV design is not qualified to self-deliver an 11kV or 33kV connection.
How to verify: Search the LRQA NERS register and check the listed scope covers your voltage, activities and DNO region, not just that the firm appears.
GIRS is the gas equivalent for new infrastructure up to 7 bar, scoped into categories (mains, services, alterations). Wrong-scope gas work is a safety and liability risk.
How to verify: Search the LRQA GIRS register and confirm the category and pressure tier match your works.
A current SSIP-member certificate (CHAS, SMAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline) shows the firm has passed third-party health-and-safety pre-qualification, often a hard requirement for larger works.
How to verify: Ask for the certificate and check it on the scheme's portal, with an expiry date in the future.
Any excavation in or alongside the public highway needs operatives and supervisors holding the correct street-works qualifications. Unqualified work is illegal and invalidates reinstatement guarantees.
How to verify: Ask for the names and card numbers of the supervisor and operatives who will be on your site and check them against the Street Works Qualifications Register.
Civil and electrical or gas works carry real liability. References on comparable schemes (same voltage, similar complexity, same region) are the best predictor of delivery.
How to verify: Request current insurance certificates and two or three references on recent comparable jobs, then call them about programme adherence and cost certainty against the original quote.
Trust the register, not the brochure. Every claim a siteworks firm makes can be checked on a free public register before you sign.
Confirms an electricity ICP's accreditation and its exact scope (activities, voltage, DNO region).
Open the registerConfirms a gas UIP's accreditation and category (mains, services, pressure tier).
Open the registerConfirms a water self-lay provider's accreditation for multi-utility schemes that include water.
Open the registerConfirms the IDNO electricity distribution licence or IGT gas transporter licence of the adopting network owner.
Open the registerConfirms the legal entity you are contracting with exists, is active and is solvent.
Open the registerConfirms an ISO 9001/14001/45001 certificate is real, live and UKAS-accredited (not just a logo).
Open the registerWant this handled end to end instead? We scope the capacity, tender the contestable civils against the network price, coordinate the works to your build programme, and place the business electricity and business gas supply contract at the end, with every margin disclosed.
More questions are answered on our new connections FAQ page, and you can check who your network operator is before you start.
Send us the site and the load. We put the contestable groundworks out to accredited contractors, hold the network, the ICP and the siteworks firm to one programme, and place the supply contract the moment the meter energises.
New to all of this? Start with the new energy connections hub for the full picture.