On the 10th June, the Government published its final proposal for the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG). Smart Export Guarantee requires electricity companies with more than 150,000 customers to offer households that are producing electricity through solar PV and not receiving the current Feed-in Tariff a payment for each kWh of electricity exported to the Grid. Some suppliers are offering SEGs already but all large energy providers must have a scheme in place by the 1st January 2020, with smaller energy companies joining on a voluntary basis.SEGs may have a fixed price or they may have an element of ‘smartness’:
- This means that some tariffs on offer for your solar exports may vary depending on how valuable the export is to the electricity system at particular times
- For instance, if you are exporting electricity at a time when everyone is at home using lots of electricity and the system needs more power you could get paid more for exporting your power than when demand for power is weak.
- These tariffs use the varying prices to encourage individuals to shift their electricity use away from times when others are also using a lot of electricity (called ‘peak’ times). Similarly, some Smart Export Guarantee tariffs may try and encourage houses to export at times when the electricity system needs more power.
- These smart tariffs could operate on half-hourly windows i.e. prices paid may vary each half hour and your own smart meter will be making recordings of your exports on a half-hourly basis.
- Or they could be simpler, with suppliers offering different day/night rights or even weekday/weekend
The price you are paid will not fall below zero at any point, the expected average price per kWh is between 5-6p. Further qualifying criteria also apply:
The big question is whether it is worth registering your system. The answer is simply yes, all solar PV calculations are based on you using 30% of the electricity your solar PV produces, therefore 70% is exported to the grid. I have a 2.5kWh array producing on average 2000 kWh a year, based on 30% usage that’s 1,400kWh exported to the grid, at 5.5p that’s £77 a year, or 2 free months of electricity, in addition to £300 a year saving on my bill. The price of solar PV has dropped dramatically over the last year due to the closure of the popular Feed in Tariff scheme, making a full system now more affordable than ever. If you would like further information contact Your Energy Savers for free advice or a no-obligation chat.