Smart Export Guarantee Tariffs Compared: Who Pays Most in 2026?

The Smart Export Guarantee, usually shortened to SEG, launched on 1 January 2020 and replaced the export payments of the old Feed-in Tariff. Under the scheme, larger electricity suppliers must offer at least one export tariff to eligible small-scale generators, including homes with solar panels.

Key features of the scheme:

• Suppliers set their own rates: Ofgem requires tariffs to pay above zero, but there is no minimum rate beyond that.
• Payment is for exports only: you are paid for electricity sent to the grid, measured by your smart meter, not for electricity you use yourself.
• You can choose your export supplier: your export tariff does not have to be with the company that supplies your electricity, although the best rates often are.
• Rates can change: many export tariffs are variable, and suppliers adjust them over time.

Because suppliers compete on export rates, the difference between the best and worst tariffs can be large, and it is worth checking your options when you install solar and again every year or so afterwards.

To receive SEG payments for a home solar system, you generally need:

• An eligible installation: solar panels of up to 5MW capacity, which covers every home system.
• MCS certification: for solar systems of 50kW or less, the installation must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme or an equivalent. Your installer provides the MCS certificate after installation.
• An export-capable meter: usually a smart meter that records exports in half-hourly periods.
• An export MPAN: a reference number that identifies your export supply point, arranged through your supplier.
• A location in Great Britain: the scheme covers England, Scotland and Wales.

You cannot receive SEG export payments if you already receive export payments under the Feed-in Tariff for the same installation.

The MCS requirement is the reason to choose an MCS-certified installer. A system installed without certification can generate perfectly well but may not qualify for export payments, which can cost hundreds of pounds a year in lost income.

Export tariffs fall into three broad types:

• Basic open tariffs: available whoever supplies your electricity, often paying around 3p to 6p per kWh. Octopus's standard SEG tariff, for example, pays 4.1p per kWh to export customers who buy their electricity elsewhere.
• Customer flat-rate tariffs: higher fixed rates for customers who also buy their electricity from the same supplier. Outgoing Octopus, for example, pays 12p per kWh, reduced from 15p in March 2026. Some suppliers offer higher rates still, around 16p to 17.5p, but often only to customers who bought their solar installation from that supplier.
• Time-of-use export tariffs: paying different rates at different times, with the highest rates during the early evening peak, typically around 4pm to 7pm. Peak rates can be well above flat rates, while off-peak rates are lower.

Rates and eligibility change regularly, so treat any figures as a snapshot and check current terms with the supplier before you switch. Ofgem's data shows that the average rate on basic, unbundled export tariffs was only around 4.5p per kWh in 2024 to 2025, which is why shopping around matters.

The highest export rates usually come with conditions, and the most common one is that you must also buy your electricity from the same supplier. That links your export income to your import tariff, and the combination is what matters.

Consider a household that exports 2,000 kWh and imports 2,500 kWh a year:

• Moving from a 4p to a 12p export rate adds about £160 a year in export income.
• If the supplier's import rate is 1p per kWh higher than your current deal, that costs about £25 a year, so the switch still pays.
• If the import rate is 7p per kWh higher, that costs about £175 a year and wipes out the gain.

Before switching for a better export rate, compare your total annual cost: import charges and standing charge, minus export income.

Other conditions to check include whether the tariff requires a particular battery, inverter or electric car charger, whether the rate is fixed or variable, how often payments are made, and whether the supplier can change the rate at short notice.

For a home without a battery, the export tariff can change solar payback by several years. Take a typical 4kW system costing £7,000 and generating 3,600 kWh a year, with 40% used at home and the rest exported. At the price cap rate of 26.32p per kWh from 1 October 2026, the electricity used at home saves about £380 a year.

• Export rate of around 4p: 2,160 kWh exported earns about £90, for a total benefit of about £470 a year and a payback of around 15 years.
• Export rate of around 12p: the same exports earn about £260, for a total benefit of about £640 a year and a payback of around 11 years.
• Export rate of around 16p: exports earn about £345, for a total benefit of about £725 a year and a payback of under 10 years.

The panels, roof and household are identical in each case. Only the export tariff changes, yet payback moves by around five years between the lowest and highest rates.

That is why choosing an export tariff deserves as much attention as choosing the panels themselves.

The right type of export tariff depends mainly on whether you have a battery.

• Solar without a battery: a flat-rate tariff usually suits best. Your exports happen when the sun shines, mostly around midday, and you cannot move them to the evening peak. A time-of-use tariff may pay less than a flat rate at those times.
• Solar with a battery: a time-of-use tariff can pay considerably more. The battery can store solar during the day, or charge cheaply overnight on a linked import tariff, and export during the early evening peak at a higher rate.
• Households with an electric car: some tariffs combine cheap overnight car charging with export payments, which can suit homes with both solar and an EV.

Time-of-use tariffs reward active management. The best results come from batteries and inverters whose software follows the tariff automatically, charging and exporting at the right times without you having to intervene.

If you are unsure, start with a flat-rate tariff and review after a few months of real generation data, which will show how much you export and when.

Signing up is usually straightforward once your system is installed:

1. Get your MCS certificate: your installer should provide it after installation.
2. Check your meter: you need a smart meter that can record exports. If you do not have one, ask your electricity supplier to fit one.
3. Get an export MPAN: your supplier or the export supplier can arrange this. It identifies your export point and is separate from your import number.
4. Choose a tariff: compare rates, conditions and whether switching your import supplier is required.
5. Apply: complete the supplier's application with your MCS certificate, meter details and installation information.

Applications can take several weeks to process. Some suppliers backdate payments to the date your application was accepted or your meter began recording exports, but not all do, so apply promptly after installation.

Once registered, payments are typically made monthly or quarterly, either as a bill credit or a payment to your bank account, depending on the supplier and tariff.

A few mistakes cost solar owners money year after year:

• Never signing up: without an export tariff, exported electricity earns nothing. Some households do not realise they need to apply.
• Staying on a default rate: accepting the first tariff offered, often a low basic rate, when a better one is available.
• Ignoring the import tariff: chasing a higher export rate while paying more for every unit imported.
• Choosing time-of-use without a battery: peak rates look attractive, but solar-only homes cannot move exports into the peak window.
• Not reviewing: rates change, and a tariff that was the best available two years ago may not be now.
• Delaying the application: where payments are not backdated, weeks of exports can go unpaid.
• Using a non-certified installer: without MCS certification, the system may not qualify for SEG payments at all.

A quick annual review of your export and import tariffs, using your smart meter data, takes little time and can be worth more than £100 a year.

However good your export tariff, each unit you use yourself is usually worth more than each unit you export. At the price cap rate of 26.32p per kWh, using a unit at home saves more than twice what even a 12p export tariff pays for it.

Simple ways to use more of your solar output:

• Run the washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer during sunny middays, using timers if you are out
• Charge an electric car during the day when possible, ideally with a solar-aware charger
• Use a solar diverter to heat hot water with surplus electricity, if you have an immersion heater
• Charge e-bikes, power tools and laptops in daylight
• Consider a battery if you are out most of the day and use most electricity in the evening

Moving even a few hundred kWh a year from export to self-use can add as much as switching export tariffs. Your smart meter or solar app will show how much you export and when, which tells you where the biggest gains are.

Export income should be part of the decision before you buy solar, not an afterthought. When you request quotes:

1. Ask each installer for predicted annual generation and the share they expect you to export
2. Check the export rate their savings figures assume, and recalculate with a realistic tariff you can actually get
3. Confirm that the installer is MCS-certified and will provide the certificate promptly
4. Ask whether an export limit will be applied, and how it affects your exports
5. If you are considering a battery, ask how it would be set up for a time-of-use export tariff

Be cautious of savings projections built on the highest export rates in the market, especially if those rates require switching to a particular supplier or are only offered with that supplier's own installations.

Our home solar page explains the main system options. When you are ready, compare quotes from up to three MCS-certified installers and see what your system could generate and earn.