Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) Guide 2026

Every SEG Tariff Compared: The Full August 2026 Rates Table

Last checked: 6 August 2026. The rates below were verified in August 2026 against two independent market comparisons and supplier tariff pages. Suppliers can change variable SEG rates with as little as 30 days’ notice, so we re-check this table monthly — always confirm the live rate on the supplier’s own tariff page before you sign up.

The export market has moved sharply this year. Octopus cut its flagship Outgoing Fixed rate from 15p to 12p per kWh on 1 March 2026 — its first export price change since 2022 — and several other suppliers have repriced since. The spread between the best and worst tariffs is now wider than ever: from 24p down to just 1.05p per kWh. None of the flat-rate tariffs in this table require a battery; battery-only time-of-use tariffs are covered separately below.

SEG tariffs available to solar homes (August 2026)

Supplier	Tariff	Rate (p/kWh)	Fixed or variable	Import customers only?	Paid	Income on 2,000 kWh exported/yr
EDF	Export Exclusive 12m V2	24	Fixed	Yes	Monthly (per Uswitch)	£480
Fuse Energy	Single Rate Variable	13	Variable	No	Check supplier	£260
E.ON Next	Next Export Exclusive v3	13	Fixed	Yes	Yearly	£260
Good Energy	Solar Savings	12	Fixed	Yes	Quarterly	£240
Octopus Energy	Outgoing (Fixed)	12	Variable (flat rate)	Yes	Monthly	£240
British Gas	Export Premium	12	Variable	Yes	Quarterly	£240
ScottishPower	SmartGen Premium	12	Variable	Yes	Quarterly	£240
OVO Energy	SEG Beyond Exclusive	12	Fixed	Yes	Quarterly	£240
100Green	Export Tariff	12	Variable	Yes	Check supplier	£240
Ecotricity	Smart Export Tariff	8.9	Variable	No	Quarterly	£178
British Gas	Export Extra	8	Variable	Yes	Quarterly	£160
Utility Warehouse	UW SEG – Bundle	8	Fixed (per Sunsave)	Yes	Quarterly	£160
E.ON Next	Next Flex Export v1	6	Fixed	No	Yearly	£120
ScottishPower	SmartGen	6	Variable	No	Quarterly	£120
EDF	SEG Export Variable Value	5.6	Variable	Yes	Quarterly	£112
So Energy	So Export Flex	4.5	Variable	No	Monthly	£90
Octopus Energy	SEG Tariff	4.1	Fixed	No	Monthly	£82
OVO Energy	SEG	4	Fixed	No	Quarterly	£80
Good Energy	Export Only	4	Variable	No	Check supplier	£80
British Gas	Export SEG	3	Variable	No	Quarterly	£60
EDF	SEG Export Variable	3	Variable	No	Quarterly	£60
Utilita	Smart Export Guarantee	3	Fixed	No	Quarterly	£60
E (Gas & Electricity)	SEG Tariff	3	Variable	No	Yearly	£60
Utility Warehouse	UW SEG – Standard	2	Variable	No	Quarterly	£40
Outfox Energy	Outfox Export	1.05	Variable	No	Check supplier	£21

Installer-exclusive launch rates (the small print matters)

The very highest headline rates in August 2026 are not open-market SEG tariffs — they are 12-month introductory rates reserved for customers who buy their solar or battery system through that supplier’s own installation arm or accredited partners. After the first year you drop to the supplier’s standard rate, which can be a fraction of the headline figure.

Supplier	Tariff	Rate (p/kWh)	Conditions
Good Energy	Solar Savings Exclusive	25 (fixed)	System installed via a Good Energy-accredited installer; 12 months, then moves to standard Solar Savings
So Energy	So Bright	20 (fixed)	So Energy installs your solar & battery and supplies your electricity; 12 months, then So Export Flex at 4.5p
OVO Energy	SEG Install Exclusive	20 (fixed)	Installation via OVO’s install route
E.ON Next	Next Export	16.5 (fixed)	System bought and installed through E.ON’s install route (supersedes the July Export Premium v3 at 17.5p)
ScottishPower	SmartGen Premium Plus	15	Installation via ScottishPower’s install route

Our advice: never choose an installer for a 12-month export rate. Over a 25-year system life, installation quality, panel and inverter choice and workmanship support matter far more than one year at 20p versus 15p — roughly a £100–£160 difference on a typical home’s exports.

The worst tariffs: what you get if you don’t choose

If you never actively pick an export tariff, you can end up on a default SEG rate — and the bottom of the market is brutal. Outfox Energy pays just 1.05p per kWh, Utility Warehouse’s standard SEG pays 2p, and a whole cluster of default tariffs (British Gas Export SEG, EDF SEG Export Variable, Utilita, E and Ruby Energy) sit at 3p. On 2,000 kWh of annual exports, the gap between EDF’s 24p Export Exclusive 12m V2 (£480) and Outfox’s 1.05p (£21) is £459 a year — for filling in one application form.

Do I have to switch my electricity supplier?

No. Under Ofgem’s SEG rules, export and import are legally decoupled: you can sell your surplus to one supplier while buying your electricity from another. In practice, though, the market splits in two:

• Best rates, bundled: almost all of the top flat rates — EDF’s market-leading Export Exclusive 12m V2 at 24p fixed, E.ON Next Export Exclusive at 13p, and the 12p cluster from Octopus, British Gas, ScottishPower, OVO and Good Energy — require you to take your import supply from the same company. The one exception near the top is Fuse Energy’s 13p Single Rate Variable, which is open to any solar owner regardless of who supplies their import electricity (Fuse’s own SEG guide and Sunsave, verified August 2026).
• No strings attached: if you want to keep your current import deal, the best no-strings rate is Fuse Energy’s Single Rate Variable at 13p — no import-supply requirement, open to all solar owners. Ecotricity’s Smart Export Tariff is now also open to any-supplier customers, but at 8.9p it sits mid-table — down sharply from 16p in July, a reminder that rates move monthly and last month’s leader can be this month’s also-ran. Among the big legacy suppliers, the highest unbundled rates are E.ON Next Flex Export and ScottishPower SmartGen, both at 6p.

Before switching supplier to chase an export rate, compare the import side too: a bundled deal only wins if the import unit rate and standing charge are competitive. An extra 6p on 2,000 kWh of exports is £120 a year — easily wiped out by an uncompetitive import tariff on a typical home’s consumption.

Battery owners: time-of-use export tariffs

If you have a home battery, flat rates are no longer the ceiling. Time-of-use export tariffs pay dramatically more for electricity delivered when the grid needs it — the 4–7pm evening peak — and much less at other times. As of August 2026:

• Octopus Flux: pays around 29.32p per kWh exported between 4pm and 7pm, roughly 10.11p through the day, and 4.99p in the 2–5am window. It requires a compatible battery, a half-hourly smart meter and Octopus import supply. The strategy: charge the battery cheaply overnight or from midday solar, then discharge into the 4–7pm window at nearly 30p.
• Octopus Prime Outgoing: a simpler two-rate version — around 16p in the 4–7pm peak and 9p at other times.
• Agile Outgoing: tracks half-hourly wholesale prices. It has averaged roughly 9.97p per kWh so far in 2026, but individual peak half-hours can pay well above any flat rate — best suited to owners happy to automate around price spikes.
• Intelligent Octopus Flux: the fully automated version is a variable tariff that pays up to around 32p per kWh in the evening peak, and requires a home battery plus Octopus import supply. It has been closed to new sign-ups since spring 2026 and remained closed as of early August 2026. Flux-family availability has changed several times this year, so check Octopus directly before planning a system around it.

Getting the most from a time-of-use tariff depends on having the right battery capacity and control setup — see our battery storage page for the systems we install and how peak-window exporting works in practice.

What You’d Actually Earn: Worked Examples for 4kW, 6kW and 10kW Systems

Headline rates only mean something once you apply them to real generation figures. Here is what SEG income looks like for typical system sizes installed in the Midlands, using conservative, checkable assumptions:

• Generation: a well-oriented, unshaded system in the Tamworth/Birmingham area typically produces around 850–900 kWh per kWp per year. We use 850 kWh/kWp — the same conservative figure the national tariff comparisons model — so these numbers are floors, not sales projections.
• Export share without a battery: around 50% of generation. Most households are out during the sunniest hours, so roughly half the output goes to the grid.
• Export share with a battery: around 25%. The battery captures most midday surplus for evening use, so less is exported — but far more expensive grid electricity is avoided.
• Rates used: 12p (the Octopus Outgoing Fixed baseline after the March 2026 cut) and 15p (an illustrative strong bundled rate — the current best fixed rate, EDF’s Export Exclusive 12m V2, pays 24p and would scale these figures up accordingly), both verified August 2026.

System	Annual generation	Setup	kWh exported/yr	SEG income at 12p	SEG income at 15p
4 kW	~3,400 kWh	No battery (50% exported)	1,700	£204	£255
		With battery (25% exported)	850	£102	£128
6 kW	~5,100 kWh	No battery (50% exported)	2,550	£306	£383
		With battery (25% exported)	1,275	£153	£191
10 kW	~8,500 kWh	No battery (50% exported)	4,250	£510	£638
		With battery (25% exported)	2,125	£255	£319

Don’t read the battery rows as “batteries cut your earnings”. SEG income is only half the equation. Take the 4kW example: adding a battery diverts around 850 kWh a year from export into home use. At the July 2026 price cap unit rate of 26.11p per kWh, and allowing for a typical 90% battery round-trip efficiency, that’s roughly £200 a year of avoided import costs — in exchange for giving up about £102 of export income at 12p. The battery household ends up around £100 a year better off on energy flows alone, before considering time-of-use tariffs, which widen the gap further.

And don’t ignore tariff choice. The same 2,000 kWh of exports is worth £480 a year at 24p, £240 at 12p — and £21 on the worst 1.05p default. Picking a strong tariff is the highest-return ten minutes in solar ownership.

Every roof is different — orientation, pitch, shading and your own usage pattern all move these numbers. Run your own figures with our solar calculator, or book a free solar survey and we’ll model generation, export share and SEG income for your actual property.

How to Apply for the SEG: Step-by-Step

SEG registration is straightforward, but suppliers will bounce incomplete applications — and every week of delay is unpaid export. Here is the full process, including the documents you need and realistic timelines.

1. Check your smart meter can record half-hourly exports. You need a meter that measures what you send to the grid every 30 minutes — a SMETS2 meter, or a SMETS1 that has been enrolled onto the national DCC network. If you don’t have one, ask your import supplier for an upgrade before applying; it’s free, but it can add weeks to the process.
2. Gather your paperwork. Suppliers will ask for: your MCS certificate (proof the system was installed by a certified installer — the scheme requirement for systems up to 50kW); your G98 or G99 confirmation (the District Network Operator connection paperwork — G98 for smaller systems notified after commissioning, G99 for larger systems approved in advance); plus your meter details and bank details. As an MCS-certified installer, Midland Solar handles the G98/G99 notification for you and issues your MCS certificate as part of your handover pack, so everything you need is in one place.
3. Choose your export supplier. Use the rates table above. Remember you don’t have to use your import supplier — but the best rates are usually reserved for customers who do, so decide whether the bundled rate justifies a switch once you’ve compared the import side too.
4. Apply and allow 6–12 weeks. Applications are made online. The supplier verifies your MCS certificate against the MCS database, confirms your meter can report half-hourly reads, and then starts metering your exports. Registration typically takes around 6–12 weeks end to end, and your first payment lands after your first billing cycle — monthly with Octopus and So Energy (EDF’s Export Exclusive 12m V2 is also monthly per Uswitch, though Sunsave lists EDF export payments as quarterly — confirm with EDF); quarterly with British Gas, ScottishPower, OVO and Ecotricity; yearly with E.ON Next and E.

Already on the Feed-in Tariff? Read this before touching anything

If your system predates April 2019 you may still receive Feed-in Tariff payments, which come in two parts: a generation payment on everything you produce and an export payment on what you send to the grid. Here’s the detail many FiT households miss: you can keep your FiT generation payment and switch just the export payment to a better SEG rate. With deemed FiT export paying roughly 5–6p per kWh depending on when you joined the scheme (5.25p in 2025/26 for early joiners; the rate is RPI-linked) and open-market SEG rates of 12–24p available in August 2026, that switch can double or nearly triple the export half of your income — without touching your guaranteed generation payments.

One warning before you switch: FiT “deemed export” assumes you export 50% of generation without metering it. Once you move to metered SEG export, you cannot go back to deemed export — the switch is one-way. If you have a battery and self-consume heavily, deemed export (paid on 50% regardless of what you actually export) may be worth more than metered SEG payments on a small real export volume. Do the maths on your actual export before switching, and remember pre-2020 FiT contracts guarantee their rates for 20–25 years while SEG rates move with the market.

Is SEG income taxable?

For most homeowners, no. HMRC exempts income from domestic microgeneration where the system is installed at or near your home and the electricity is mainly for your own use — which covers a typical household solar installation. SEG payments arrive with nothing deducted and don’t need to go on a tax return in those circumstances.

Not sure what your meter, paperwork or FiT position means for your application? Get in touch — we register export paperwork for Midlands households every week and can tell you exactly where you stand.

Export or Store? The Decision Maths for Battery Owners

Every kWh your panels generate that you don’t use immediately faces a choice: sell it to the grid, or store it for later. The right answer is pure arithmetic, and in August 2026 it still comes out on one side for most households.

• Value of an exported kWh = your SEG rate. Most strong flat tariffs pay 12–13p; the market-leading EDF Export Exclusive 12m V2 pays 24p (EDF import customers only).
• Value of a stored kWh = the import price you avoid later, minus battery losses. At the July 2026 price cap unit rate of 26.11p, with a typical 90% round-trip efficiency, a stored kWh returns about 0.9 × 26.11p ≈ 23.5p.

That gives a simple rule of thumb: exporting only beats storing when your export rate exceeds roughly 90% of your import unit rate. With imports at 26.11p, the break-even export rate is about 23.5p. EDF’s 24p Export Exclusive 12m V2 is the rare flat tariff that clears that bar — but it requires taking your import supply from EDF, and every other flat tariff sits well below it. At 12p, every kWh you export instead of storing costs you around 11.5p of forgone value; across 1,000 kWh a year, that’s about £115.

So when does exporting actually win?

• Peak-window time-of-use rates. Octopus Flux’s ~29.32p between 4pm and 7pm is one of the few widely cited rates that clears the 23.5p bar. Battery owners on Flux flip the logic: store at midday, export into the peak, and run the house on cheaper off-peak imports.
• Short-lived exclusives and top fixed deals. Good Energy’s 25p Solar Savings Exclusive and EDF’s 24p Export Exclusive 12m V2 also clear the bar — but the first lasts only 12 months via their installation route, and the second requires EDF import supply.
• When the battery is full. Once storage is at 100%, the marginal kWh has nowhere to go — exporting it at 12–24p beats curtailing it at 0p every time.
• When generation outruns storage. A 10kW array producing ~8,500 kWh a year can fill a typical 10kWh battery by lunchtime in summer; everything after that is export income by default. Larger systems should be designed with the export tariff in mind from day one.

Why are export rates so much lower than import prices? It isn’t suppliers being mean — the two prices contain different things. Your 26.11p import rate includes network charges, environmental and social levies, metering costs and supplier margin on top of the wholesale electricity price. Export payments are priced close to the wholesale value alone — and midday summer wholesale prices keep falling as more solar comes onto the grid, which is exactly why Octopus trimmed its flat rate in March 2026. That structural gap is also why self-consumption — using your own generation instead of buying it back later — is the most valuable thing you can do with a solar kWh.

The practical takeaway for Midlands households: size the battery to your evening usage, pick a strong export tariff for the genuine surplus, and let the arithmetic above decide the rest. Our battery storage page covers the systems we fit and how they pair with time-of-use tariffs, or book a free solar survey and we’ll model store-vs-export for your actual roof, usage and tariff options.