Smart Export Guarantee 2026: SEG Rates Compared (Scotland)

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is the government-backed scheme, overseen by Ofgem, that makes the larger electricity suppliers pay you for electricity you export from solar panels and other small renewable systems. On 6 October 2026, the best flat rates open to a Scottish home, whoever installed its panels, were 12p to 13p per kWh, but almost all of them required you to buy your electricity from the same supplier. If you keep your current supplier, most open SEG tariffs paid 2p to 6p, with Fuse Energy's 13p the exception.

This comparison is for homeowners in Scotland with solar panels, or about to get them, who want the most for their surplus without paying more on the import side. Every rate comes from the supplier's own website, terms or published tariff data, checked on 6 October 2026.

SEG rates compared, supplier by supplier

All rates are pence per kWh exported, correct as of 6 October 2026. Flat rates are national: the same in South Scotland, which is SP Energy Networks territory, as in SSEN's North Scotland.

Best rates if you also buy your electricity from them

Best rates if you keep your current supplier

Deals tied to the supplier installing your system

Comparison sites often headline higher figures, but these need that supplier or its installation arm to have fitted your system:

• E.ON Next Export Premium v3: 17.5p, fixed for 12 months, for E.ON installations from 10 November 2025.
• EDF Export Exclusive 12m V3: 18p, for new installations by EDF's solar installation partner, enquired about from 2 March 2026.
• ScottishPower SmartGen Premium Plus: 15p variable, if ScottishPower installed your panels or battery.
• OVO SEG Install Exclusive: up to 20p (15p for solar only), for OVO installations.
• Good Energy Solar Savings Exclusive: 25p, fixed for 12 months, for Good Energy solar and battery installations.

How the Smart Export Guarantee works

The SEG started on 1 January 2020. Ofgem's guidance sets out the rules:

• Every licensed supplier with at least 150,000 domestic electricity customers must offer at least one SEG tariff to any eligible generator; smaller suppliers can join voluntarily.
• For 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, Ofgem lists 12 mandatory licensees: British Gas, E (Gas and Electricity), E.ON Next, EDF, Utility Warehouse, Foxglove Energy Supply, Fuse Energy, Octopus, OVO, ScottishPower, So Energy and Utilita.
• Suppliers set their own rate, contract length and terms, but the rate must stay above zero at all times.
• Solar PV, wind, hydro and anaerobic digestion up to 5MW qualify, as does micro-CHP up to 50kW. You need an MCS certificate or equivalent, an export meter that can take half-hourly readings, and an export MPAN.
• You can only have one SEG supplier at a time, it need not be your electricity supplier, and you cannot combine SEG with Feed-in Tariff export payments.
• You are entitled to be paid on actual meter readings.

Good Energy and Ecotricity are not on Ofgem's 2026/27 licensee list; their export tariffs are open only to their own customers.

Why the rates differ so much

The answer is tied tariffs. In Ofgem's report on the 2024/25 SEG year, 29 of the 50 tariffs on offer carried extra conditions, such as importing from the same supplier. Those tied tariffs averaged 15.39p per kWh, against 4.47p for tariffs open to anyone.

Scotland follows the same pattern. Ofgem's 2024/25 data shows 20,772 SEG registrations in Scotland at the end of the year; our analysis of its dataset found 77% of them on tied tariffs and 13,548 with Octopus. Scottish installations reported 43.8 GWh of export and were paid £6.05 million, roughly 13.8p per kWh, although Ofgem notes payments and readings do not always fall in the same year.

Rates also move faster than comparison tables. On 6 October 2026, EDF's own page showed 13p for Export 12m and Ecotricity's showed 12p, while a comparison table updated on 16 September still listed 15p and 16p. Check the supplier's page on the day you apply.

How to apply for SEG, step by step

The application takes minutes; waiting for the export MPAN takes the time. The full chain, from network operator to supplier, is in our guide to who does what when you go solar.

• Gather your documents: MCS certificate, DNO acceptance (in SP Energy Networks areas E.ON Next accepts a copy of the G98 or G99 form), proof of address, a photo of your export or smart meter, and a schematic if you have a battery.
• Check your meter. It must record half-hourly export; Octopus says almost all SMETS2 and most SMETS1 meters can.
• Decide whether to move your import. Octopus, for example, asks you to join a standard Octopus tariff first, then apply for Outgoing.
• Apply online. The supplier validates your details and requests an export MPAN from the network operator if you have none, though E.ON Next says that in SP Energy Networks areas your installer must do this. Octopus lists two days to process an application, one to four weeks for the network to create the export MPAN, its longest step, and five days to enrol it; OVO aims to set accounts up within four weeks, and ScottishPower pays new applicants from their application date.
• Send readings if asked. ScottishPower needs export readings online every six months, and Octopus needs monthly readings from export-only customers.

SEG or time-of-use export?

A flat SEG rate pays the same whenever you export. Time-of-use export pays more in the early evening, which only helps if you can move export into that window, in practice with a battery.

• Prime Outgoing Octopus paid 16p from 4pm to 7pm and 9p otherwise on 6 October 2026. Each unit exported between 4pm and 7pm earns 4p more than the flat 12p and each one at other times earns 3p less, so Prime only wins if more than about 43% of your export lands between 4pm and 7pm. Against Fuse's 13p, the break-even is about 57%.
• Agile Outgoing tracks wholesale prices every half hour. Over the 12 months to 30 September 2026 it averaged 8.84p in South Scotland between 10am and 4pm, when solar exports peak, and 15.83p between 4pm and 7pm; no month's daytime average reached 12p. North Scotland averaged 9.22p and 15.01p. (Our analysis of Octopus's published rates.)

For solar without a battery, a flat 12p or 13p usually beats both. With a battery, the bigger prize is often the import side, which Octopus Flux prices together with export. See our breakdown of Octopus Flux export rates, and our guide to the best tariffs for solar and battery homes for import and export pairings. Octopus's Flux page was taking sign-ups when we checked on 6 October 2026; it needs solar, a home battery and Octopus for both import and export.

Exporting from a battery

Ofgem's guidance lets suppliers choose whether to pay for electricity exported from a battery charged from the grid, because your panels did not generate it. They can pay for all of it, none of it, a pro-rated share, or ask for extra meters. Supplier terms differ:

• British Gas says it pays SEG on export whether it comes from your panels or your battery.
• EDF says battery export is eligible if the battery is linked to an eligible renewable installation, though its terms let it decide what share of mixed export it pays.
• Octopus and OVO say in their terms they are not obliged to pay for grid-charged export; OVO pays for it on its Battery Boost add-on.
• E.ON Next and OVO ask for a schematic showing how the battery connects.

If battery export income matters to your home battery plans, read the terms before you sign. Our page on solar panels with battery storage covers how the two work together.

Worked comparisons: what the gap is worth

Use your own export figure if you have one; otherwise Ofgem's data is a fair guide. Scottish solar homes that stayed on the same SEG tariff through 2024/25 reported a median of about 1,140 kWh of export, from a median 4kW system, with the middle half between roughly 580 and 1,900 kWh.

Export is seasonal in Scotland. PVGIS puts a 4kWp south-facing array in Livingston at about 3,440 kWh a year, but only around 74 kWh in December against 466 kWh in May, with about 72% arriving between April and September.

At 1,140 kWh of export a year and 6 October 2026 rates, the differences look like this:

• Moving from a 3p or 4p open tariff to Fuse Energy's 13p: an extra £100 to £115 a year, without changing your electricity supplier.
• Moving from a 6p open tariff to 13p: an extra £80 or so a year.
• Switching your import to get a 12p tied rate instead of 3p: about £100 more on export, worth it only if the new electricity tariff does not cost you more than that over a year.
• Choosing 13p over 12p: about £11 a year difference, small enough that the import tariff should decide.

Using power beats exporting it. Ofgem's price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 averages 26.32p per kWh across Great Britain for electricity by Direct Debit (26.11p in South Scotland and 26.35p in North Scotland), with no VAT on household electricity from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. A unit you use saves roughly twice what a unit exported earns.

How to choose

• Solar only, happy to switch: a 12p to 13p tied tariff, picked on the import price.
• Solar only, staying put: Fuse Energy's 13p (6 October 2026), or your supplier's best open rate.
• Solar and a battery: compare Prime Outgoing and Flux against how much you can export after 4pm.
• Over 15kW: check size limits, because E.ON Next's Export Exclusive and British Gas's Export Premium stop at 15kW and OVO's Beyond Exclusive at 30kW.

Still planning? Design for self-consumption first: see how our solar panel installation works, or Get your free quote.