Octopus vs. Bulb Fixed SEG. Thoughts?

Screwdriva

Greetings!

I've recently commissions my 4 kW rooftop solar LG bifacial panel system and have been waiting for the best SEG option. We're based in SE London (Zone 2). Apologies for the amateur nature of this post but selling leccy to the grid is a new concept to us, but one we're very excited about.

Here's what I've found so far:

Bulb: 5.38p
Octopus: 5.5p

We have a Bulb account and love the company. Doesn't mean I won't switch to Octopus or any other provider if we can make more money selling to the grid. Any suggestions on the best provider? Sign up for Bulb SEG or wait a few weeks?

mmmmikey

Sorry for answering a question with a question, but I beleive this is relevant.....


In the old world of FIT exports (i.e. selling to the grid) the FIT contract is entirely independent of your supply contract.


In the new world of SEG I've been assuming that in order to be able to sell electricity to an energy company you have to buy your energy from them too. As such there's no point in moving to a supplier who's going to pay you an extra £25 per annum for your export if you have to pay an extra £50 for your import.


Is this assumption correct or can you work these independently?

Screwdriva

I think you may be right. That said, I’m not sure Octopus is considerably costlier than Bulb’s variable tariff but I’m hoping someone with more experience on these forums can chime in.

I’ve only been with Bulb but haven’t actually paid for leccy yet, as I have referred around 3 dozen people to them.

Screwdriva

For those interested, these are the latest SEG tariffs for residential solar. Note the range in this list. It is shocking that these rates are <50% of the rate they sell to their own customers (talk about a healthy margin!)

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/social_comes_out_on_top_as_shell_issues_bare_minimum_seg

onomatopoeia99

Screwdriva wrote: »

For those interested, these are the latest SEG tariffs for residential solar. Note the range in this list. It is shocking that these rates are <50% of the rate they sell to their own customers (talk about a healthy margin!)

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/social_comes_out_on_top_as_shell_issues_bare_minimum_seg

Hmm Octopus paying 5.5p but only charging 5p in the small hours on their Go tariff. If you have a battery and can persuade it to export to the grid during the day, sell their own electric back to them at a profit?

Solarchaser

Unlikely tbh due to round trip efficiency for charging and then discharging home batteries, would likely end up pretty much level, plus you have put extra cycles on your inverter / batteries.

Add another 0.5p onto that export, and it's a different story though

MarkFromCornwall

mmmmikey wrote: »

Is this assumption correct or can you work these independently?

According to https://octopus.energy/blog/outgoing/ you can sell to Octopus whilst buying from your existing supplier, but they only pay 3p/kWh in this case.

UnclaimedEnergy

It isn't currently advertised anywhere, however So Energy are doing one for 5p/kWh and you don't need to be with them for supply.

Bulb's 5.38p/kWh seems to be the best non-supply price though currently.

Screwdriva

Depressing when you think about it. Bulb gets 60% by selling our leccy to our neighbors and investing nothing but an initial setup.

SEG was clearly meant to help rooftop solar. Sadly, the industry has done nothing so far but prove that government mandates are required to treat end users fairly.