Smart Export Guarantee

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) pays households and small businesses in Great Britain for renewable electricity they export to the grid, and it is the route for anyone whose installation went in after the Feed-in Tariff closed to new applicants.

How it replaced the Feed-in Tariff

The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) closed to new applicants on 31 March 2019; installations already accredited by then kept receiving their FIT payments for their agreed term, but no new installations could join. The Smart Export Guarantee launched on 1 January 2020 to fill that gap. Instead of one fixed national rate set by government, licensed electricity suppliers, known as SEG licensees, set their own export tariff rate and contract terms, though the rate must always stay above zero. An installation cannot receive SEG and FIT export payments at the same time. Suppliers with at least 150,000 domestic customers must offer a SEG tariff; smaller suppliers can choose to take part.

Who qualifies

SEG covers installations in Great Britain only; Northern Ireland has a separate energy market. Eligible technologies are solar photovoltaic (solar PV), wind, micro combined heat and power, hydropower and anaerobic digestion, up to a capacity of 5 megawatts (50 kilowatts for micro-CHP). To be paid, the installation and installer must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme or an equivalent accredited scheme, and the property needs a meter able to record exports in half-hourly readings, typically a smart meter.

How to apply

Applicants apply directly to a licensed SEG supplier, not to Ofgem, which checks eligibility and agrees the tariff rate and contract length; Ofgem publishes the current list of SEG licensees. Because rates, contract lengths and other terms vary between suppliers, it is worth comparing more than one before signing up, in the same way as comparing any other energy tariff.

Confirm your installation is certified, get the right export meter fitted, and apply to a current SEG licensee to be paid for the electricity you export, rather than assume an installation automatically carries over from the closed Feed-in Tariff.