Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) Experience

mvmccabe

Thanks for all the replies. New tariff from EON and change to T&Cs from Octopus look promising. Will give it a try...

michaels

I am hoping to benefit from the DFS through increased battery exports to the grid this year - app provider Hugo are hoping to support this.  However I am struggling to know if half hourly export data from my smart meter is available.  n3nrgy only downloads import data and won't accept my export mpan (obtained from UK Power networks).  I was previously on a trial with ovo on they paid me a SEG type payment based on export data for the smets 1 smart meter they installed.  I am now with EDF who installed a smets 2 smart meter but they say remote access to half hourly export data is not available (at least through them).

I cold potentially export 10kwh during a 2 hour DFS event so if there were 10 in the year at £3 per kwh this would make a tasty £300

Does anyone have any insight?

nerak99

The MCS only situation appears to be breaking down. The legislation never envisaged a single certification. For a start it presents a competition issue.

I prioritised a firm with a good reputation who mostly installed larger scale systems. I found that the MCS companies that I could find seemed to be web front ends with no real connection to who the fitters would be. That maybe just my experience though. Oh, and I had a battery fitted which means that unless I am on holiday, very little electricity is exported anyway. 

My only experience with MCS is via my brother in law who has ended up with a non-working, yet MCS certified, system and an endless round of phone calls attempting to get service from the company who organised the fitting. No sign of the actual fitting firm who seem to have disappeared and no clear route to anyone who can solve his problem. 

It seems to me that MCS is a near monopoly certification scheme that leads in some cases at least to all the issues on price and reliability that are a common theme with monopolies in general.

QrizB

nerak99 said:

My only experience with MCS is via my brother in law who has ended up with a non-working, yet MCS certified, system and an endless round of phone calls attempting to get service from the company who organised the fitting. No sign of the actual fitting firm who seem to have disappeared and no clear route to anyone who can solve his problem.

In order to join MCS, an installer needs to be a member of a consumer code and have an insurance-backed guarantee.

If your brother-in-law has problems with his solar PV system and can't get hold of his installer, he can contact MCS and be given details of the relevant consumer code and insurer. He can then contact them and get them on the case.

michfosb

It's been a year and I have been sent a single cheque, for 6p.
The agents on the phone line and the chat utility clearly enjoy winding up their customers, at the expense of the companies future...  I have spent more than 10 hours on the phone line and still have no progress.
When I am able to move to another supplier I will, even if it is more expensive.

Spies

michfosb said:

It's been a year and I have been sent a single cheque, for 6p.
The agents on the phone line and the chat utility clearly enjoy winding up their customers, at the expense of the companies future...  I have spent more than 10 hours on the phone line and still have no progress.
When I am able to move to another supplier I will, even if it is more expensive.

I'm on a smart meter and get credited every month without fail, octopus are perfect for me. 

Shortsy

I submitted my application three months ago to Scottish Power as soon as my system went live. It was acknowledged pretty quickly and an export code sent, but for the last two months they've been unable to set up my account on their 'minfo' system for some unexplained reason despite chasing every few weeks.
Needless to say, I've issued a complaint and I'll be moving across to Octopus as soon as I can leave my fixed import contract next month. I'm expecting it will take lots of correspondence to get my export payments.

nobby1963

My experience….
Panels ( no battery ) fitted Nov 2011 and been with EDF for FIT & export ever since, early days some issues with delays getting FIT payments but quite quickly sorted out their system and EDF were excellent with turnaround time for payment ever since, especially when you read other supplier stories.
I have moved my electricity supply from EDF years ago but have always remained with them for FIT payments.
Currently with Octopus for electricity supply for second or third time and in the last couple of years have been wanting to understand more about moving my export payment to get more than the pitiful 5p ish we get.
Finally got around to reading more about the process and initiated it 4 months ago, some conflicting emails from Octopus but all sorted within 6 weeks.
Gone from getting in the peak production quarter £36 at best for export to last month alone £50+ on Octopus 

Just to clarify our FIT generation payment is staying with EDF.
Cheers
Nobby.

Qyburn

31 May 2024 New install completed/handed over on (Friday)
04 June Paperwork including MCS and G99 received, applied for export tariff same day.

Octopus faffed around for week saying the application can't proceed for reasons with changing between .. "You don't have an export MPAN" to "Can't find MCS certificate" to "Supply MPAN on MCS doesn't match property" (it does match) to "MCS has some mismatch but we can't tell you what" then finally to "there isn't actually a problem, we applied for the export MPAN yesterday"

10 June Octopus applied for export MPAN
12 June Octopus received export MPAN from SSEN
15 June smart meter "enrolled" and tariff live.

So longest delay was Octopus, typical of their current policy where you don't get to communicate directly to anyone who knows what they're talking about so it's the luck of the draw depending on who picks up the call. And stuff emailed doesn't get forwarded to the relevant team unless you phone and prompt the agent do so.

stejim1

mvmccabe said:

Hi,
I'm looking for advice and other people's experiences with the Smart Export Guarantee scheme. We had solar panels fitted in January, and have already given the National Grid over 500kWh of free energy. So far, I've been finding it really hard to get onto SEG.

• The best deals are with Octopus. But our installation is Flex-Orb certified and not MCS. Octopus don't accept Flexi-Orb. To me, it seems bizarre that one type of certification should be less recognised than the other - it's still solar energy!
• The next best deal is with Scottish Power. However, I don't think we'll qualify as they insist on battery storage being separate from the export meter. I have no idea why energy that has come from solar via our battery storage should be any different from the energy straight from the panels.
• The next best deal after that is with British Gas, at 1/3 to 1/4 the price of Octopus.

Then, the application process is hard. My British Gas application has been sent back to me twice now, asking for additional info (e.g. I sent photos of smart meter with export reading and MPAN number, but now they insist on meter serial number on the photo as well!). It looks as if Scottish Power want different info (e.g. DNO confirmation reference number). 

To summarise, to get SEG payments the application process is both restrictive and difficult. And if successful, we'll probably get paid far less than the wholesale price of the energy!

What do others think

Hi 
Our solar panels were installed in July 2023, and since British Gas (BG) handles our energy income, it seemed logical for them to manage our export energy as well. Unfortunately, this decision has turned into a total disaster. First, the local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) made errors on the G99 form, which delayed us until October 2023 to receive the correct documentation. Additionally, the installer made mistakes in both the MCS report and the installation. We were informed that our smart meter wasn’t capable of displaying export readings, and I’m still unsure if that issue has been resolved. As of now, we are still not in an export agreement with BG. I have called BG 46 times and sent 47 emails. We currently have an ongoing complaint with them, and the entire matter is being escalated to the energy ombudsman.