Smart Export Guarantee: getting paid for solar surplus

The Smart Export Guarantee, or SEG, enables eligible small-scale generators in Great Britain to receive supplier payments for electricity exported to the grid. It is an export-payment arrangement rather than an installation grant. Ofgem provides the scheme information; suppliers set their tariff terms.

For a Croxley Green household, the useful first step is to understand what your proposed installation is expected to export after direct home use and any battery charging. A forecast is not a commitment by a supplier to pay a particular amount.

Export is electricity that leaves the property for the network. Electricity used in your home reduces imports but is not also exported. Counting the same energy in both categories overstates the benefit. Ask the installer to show annual generation split into the relevant uses.

A battery changes the timing of energy use and may reduce solar exports. If grid charging or battery export is part of the plan, check the supplier’s rules for that arrangement. Do not assume every export product treats stored energy identically.

Ask your chosen supplier for its current application requirements, accepted installation certification or equivalent evidence, and export-metering arrangements. Agree which documents the installer supplies at handover. Missing records can delay an application even when the equipment is working.

Keep the legal installer identity, commissioning information and relevant network paperwork together. The supplier can explain export registration and readings. Croxley Green Solar does not register an export tariff for you or act as your electricity supplier.

Compare the export rate alongside any requirement to buy imported electricity from the same supplier, use specified equipment or accept a particular contract structure. A headline export price alone may not describe the best whole-household outcome.

Ask how rates can change, how payments are calculated and whether there are eligibility conditions for your proposed battery. Use terms available at the time you apply. This guide deliberately avoids a rate table that would become stale without ongoing verification.

If there is an existing Feed-in Tariff or export arrangement, contact the administering supplier before changing equipment or signing a replacement export contract. Establish which payments are received, who owns the system and what evidence is needed for any transfer.

For a house purchase, ask the conveyancer and seller for the installation and ownership documents. Panels attached to a roof are not conclusive evidence of ownership. Treat tariff continuity as a specific question, not an automatic consequence of buying the building.

Storing solar gives up the export payment that electricity might otherwise earn. The comparison should then account for the later import cost avoided, losses and the installed price of storage. Those figures can change when a tariff or household routine changes.

Ask your installer to show a solar-only scenario before adding storage. That makes the incremental benefit visible. Our enquiry service can connect you with a partner installer to discuss equipment, while the export supplier confirms its own tariff and eligibility requirements.