Octopus Outgoing vs British Gas - Who will pay me more for solar generated electricity?

MelonFarm

have searched through previous forum posts but can't see an answer to this question:

I am currently with Octopus for my energy supply.

However, I have British Gas paying my Feed in Tariff for the electric generated by my 4kw solar panel array.

Looking at my last FiT payment, BG are paying me £22.53/kwh for Generation and 6.79p/kwh for Export.

Last 3 months we had 828kwh Generated = £186.55 and 414kwh Exported = £28.11

My question is, would Octopus Fixed or Agile pay more? I can only see details of the export tariffs on Octopus website nothing about their Generation payment.

Any responses much appreciated. Thanks.

QrizB

MelonFarm said:

I am currently with Octopus for my energy supply.
However, I have British Gas paying my Feed in Tariff for the electric generated by my 4kw solar panel array.
Looking at my last FiT payment, BG are paying me £22.53/kwh for Generation and 6.79p/kwh for Export.

22.53p/kWh, not £22.53?

6.79p/kWh for export, but "deemed" export as 50% of generation rather than metered export?

MelonFarm said:

Last 3 months we had 828kwh Generated = £186.55 and 414kwh Exported = £28.11

That would be consistent with deemed export.

Do you have a smart meter? Do you know how much electricity you actually exported in the past quarter?

MelonFarm said:

My question is, would Octopus Fixed or Agile pay more? I can only see details of the export tariffs on Octopus website nothing about their Generation payment.

Outgoing Octopus (Fixed or Agile) replaces your export payment.

So, you can:

1. Leave your FIT with BG. Claim geneartion and deemed export as currently.
2. Leave your FIT with BG. Claim generation but out out of export payments. Sign up with Octopus for metered export on one of the Outgoing tariffs.
3. Move your FIT to Octopus. Claim generation payments from Octopus (at the same rate as BG are paying) and metered export on one of the Outgoing tariffs.

But without knowing exactly how much you export, it's impossible to say for certain whether you'll be better off with metered export or deemed.

MelonFarm

Outgoing Octopus (Fixed or Agile) replaces your export payment.

So, you can:

1. Leave your FIT with BG. Claim geneartion and deemed export as currently.
2. Leave your FIT with BG. Claim generation but out out of export payments. Sign up with Octopus for metered export on one of the Outgoing tariffs.
3. Move your FIT to Octopus. Claim generation payments from Octopus (at the same rate as BG are paying) and metered export on one of the Outgoing tariffs.

But without knowing exactly how much you export, it's impossible to say for certain whether you'll be better off with metered export or deemed.

Thanks QrizB

I am a bit clueless here but yes I think deemed export as I submit the reading manually every 90 days.

Yeah so we generated 828kwh in the last 90 day 'chunk' which led to the above payment. But without an export meter I see what you mean, we're just guessing at how much electricity the household actually uses versus exports. I understand now. 

I do like Octopus as a supplier so was quite keen on the idea of switching FiT over to them to have everything 'under one roof'. I see their fixed export is paying 15pence versus BG 6.79pence.

Qyburn

In this scenario, deemed export, will the smart meter still record export so thst he can have a look manually? Or would that function only be enabled once he signs up and it's too late to go back?

On the other hand 15p/kWh will still work out better even if his actual is half of the deemed.

QrizB

Qyburn said:

In this scenario, deemed export, will the smart meter still record export so thst he can have a look manually? Or would that function only be enabled once he signs up and it's too late to go back?

If the OP has a smart electricity meter, it will have an export register and it should be possible to read it.

If they know when the meter was installed, then (even if they'v never read the export register before today) they can divide the number by the length of time the meter's been installed and get an idea of how many kWh per year they're exporting. Comparing that to their annual generation will give an estimate of what % they are exporting, and whether metered export will be more lucrative.

Qyburn said:

On the other hand 15p/kWh will still work out better even if his actual is half of the deemed.

Agreed, they're currently receiving 6.8p for half the kwh they generate. Receiving 15p for a quarter of their geneartion would be a bigger sum.

MelonFarm

Just had a look.

28,158 kwh over the past 10.5 years so roughly 2,680 kwh/year generated.

I have a note on my last BG payment that they said I had a '58% tolerance' which I have absolutely no idea the meaning of!

QrizB

MelonFarm said:

28,158 kwh over the past 10.5 years so roughly 2,680 kwh/year generated.

That's a little low for a 4kWp array. Do you have shading from eg. trees, or does the array face significantly away from south? Or are you in the far north of the UK?
If you can find the export register on your smart meter (assuming you have one!), and the install date, we can see how much of that you're exporting.

Reed_Richards

My new smart meter rotates the display through Date, Time, Import, Export, so finding the export reading is really easy.  Maybe this is just good luck? 

MelonFarm

QrizB said:

MelonFarm said:

28,158 kwh over the past 10.5 years so roughly 2,680 kwh/year generated.

That's a little low for a 4kWp array. Do you have shading from eg. trees, or does the array face significantly away from south? Or are you in the far north of the UK?
If you can find the export register on your smart meter (assuming you have one!), and the install date, we can see how much of that you're exporting.

Cheers.

The solar panels are not shaded at all no. We're in Edinburgh. 

We have a LGyr SMETS1 meter but it's 'dumb' since we changed supplier when we bought the house. 

We have a separate meter which reads the lifetime export on display but nothing else. No buttons etc.

I actually have SMETS2 install for both gas and electric in December so will see how that displays import/export and take it from there.

QrizB

Your SMETS1 should still have an export register.

Is your L&G meter like this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxo9XdJB1Rw&t=0s

vic_sf49

Is your array definitely 4kw?

Under the FIT scheme, weren't the arrays "up to 4kw", unless you had an export* meter fitted? My memory is a bit sketchy.

My system is 3.68kw or something thereabouts.

Eta, *not the one you take your quarterly readings from.