FIT Metered or Deemed export?

davebuncombe

Hi
Anyone able to give advice whether it's better to on a deemed or metered export?
We are averaging about £13.70p from the Fit on a deemed export.

We used about 2076kw of electric last year if that helps in anyway and our panels are East facing. 

Petriix

You need to figure out how much you're exporting before anyone can help you. My EV charger (Zappi) monitors this for me as a side effect of measuring surplus generation for solar charging.

With the EV, I'm using about 60% of what I generate. Without it, it was more like 35%. So I'm slightly better off with deemed exports right now.

[Deleted User]

Most homeowners use somewhere between 25 and 50% of the energy that their panels generate. If you are entitled to FIT, you are paid for every kWh that the panels produce plus export payments. Export payments are based on either 50% of your total generation or metered export. The latter requires either a separate meter or a smart meter. 

I am able to use c.80% of the energy that my solar array produces as I have both an EV and home battery.

Reed_Richards

davebuncombe said:

We are averaging about £13.70p from the Fit on a deemed export.

Per quarter?  Averaged over what time period?

UnclaimedEnergy

If you have a smart meter already installed there might be a way of finding out exactly how much you're exporting (I don't know for sure and it's too early for me to research it to be sure).

If you aren't going to be at home during the day at all and don't have anything using electricity while it's sunny, metered export might be better as you may be exporting more than 50%.

With deemed you at least have consistency based on the seasonal quarters though.

UnclaimedEnergy

Reed_Richards said:

davebuncombe said:

We are averaging about £13.70p from the Fit on a deemed export.

Per quarter?  Averaged over what time period?

It would likely be per quarter over the lifetime of the panels, which can be anywhere up to 8 years or so.

Reed_Richards

Which electricity companies actually give you a choice between deemed and metered export for your FiT?  Or do you have to switch to a company that will guarantee metered export but still give you whatever FiT rate you are on?  Octopus, for example, will do metered export but AFAIK this is only at the Octopus rate, not the standard FiT rate. 

[Deleted User]

Reed_Richards said:

Which electricity companies actually give you a choice between deemed and metered export for your FiT?  Or do you have to switch to a company that will guarantee metered export but still give you whatever FiT rate you are on?  Octopus, for example, will do metered export but AFAIK this is only at the Octopus rate, not the standard FiT rate. 

Forget FIT: the rate agreed (subject to RPI increases) at the time of installation is set by Government. What a consumer can do is either move to metered export (if they are exporting more than 50%) OR they can forego export in favour of SEG. In the latter case, the FIT payments are retained. 

So why bother moving to SEG? Octopus offers a SEG payment which is a little under the export payment. This is the only thing available to new solar entrants. It is also useful if people have added to their original solar array where the additional panels do not attract a FIT payment. By moving to SEG, all their exported power is metered at a single unit rate.

Reed_Richards

Dolor said:
Forget FIT: the rate agreed (subject to RPI increases) at the time of installation is set by Government. What a consumer can do is either move to metered export (if they are exporting more than 50%) OR they can forego export in favour of SEG. In the latter case, the FIT payments are retained. 

Yes, sorry, I tend to get muddled with the terminology.  The Feed-in Tariff is the name of the scheme (which ran from April 2010 and was closed to new applicants in April 2019).  I have solar panels and get a payment under the FiT scheme for the total amount I generate and a second payment for the amount I am deemed to export, being 50% of the energy generated.  I don't have a meter that can measure export so I am stuck with deemed export.  I have read about electricity suppliers not trusting export meter readings, where these are fitted.  Are we saying that with a "trusted" export meter I (or the OP) could elect to move to metered export payments at the Government-set rate?  With any supplier?  Is it a one-way move?     

[Deleted User]

Reed_Richards said:

Dolor said:
Forget FIT: the rate agreed (subject to RPI increases) at the time of installation is set by Government. What a consumer can do is either move to metered export (if they are exporting more than 50%) OR they can forego export in favour of SEG. In the latter case, the FIT payments are retained. 

Yes, sorry, I tend to get muddled with the terminology.  The Feed-in Tariff is the name of the scheme (which ran from April 2010 and was closed to new applicants in April 2019).  I have solar panels and get a payment under the FiT scheme for the total amount I generate and a second payment for the amount I am deemed to export, being 50% of the energy generated.  I don't have a meter that can measure export so I am stuck with deemed export.  I have read about electricity suppliers not trusting export meter readings, where these are fitted.  Are we saying that with a "trusted" export meter I (or the OP) could elect to move to metered export payments at the Government-set rate?  With any supplier?  Is it a one-way move?     

All SMETS2 meters can record imported and exported electricity. To pay for exported energy, the Special Export Guarantee (SEG) payer has to apply to the DNO for a separate MPAN: that is, one meter two MPANs. There still needs to be a meter that records the total amount of solar that is generated. This meter reading is used for the FIT payments going forward.

There is no Government fixed payments scheme for exported energy outside of the overall FIT scheme. Payments made under the SEG are at the discretion of each supplier. Octopus and Bulb offer the highest SEG payments. The supplier is paying you for the energy not the Government.

If you decide to switch your supply and generation contracts (FIT) to Octopus; agree to them fitting a smart meter, and agree to forgo your 50% export payments, they will pay for all the units of electricity exported under their Agile Fixed or Agile Variable Outgoing tariffs. This can include any electricity exported from a home battery.

https://blog.spiritenergy.co.uk/homeowner/smart-export-guarantee-tariffs

QrizB

We've got a short thread on this topic over in the "Green and Ethical" section:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6269406/export-tariffs-fit-seg-octopus-outgoing-agile