Advice needed on Changing FIT providers

rarees1

We know we can change FIT suppliers once in 12 months. We've never switched FIT supplier before so Scottish Power currently pay our FIT monies with the export based on Deemed 50%.

Having considered advice given on a previous post re our solar panel system, we have gathered the info to apply to Octopus Outgoing tariff which pays a considerably higher FIT export rate but we're wondering if it's the best thing to do. We have been receiving a high FIT rate because the cost of installation of our not quite 4KwH panels 15 years ago was over £12k. Our FIT is guaranteed for 25 years, increasing slightly annually. The export rate is just over 5p as opposed to Octopus's soon to be 12p.

Now that we have a SMART meter and Octopus would pay on the exact amount exported, should we find that we are worse off (we have no idea how much we actually export), would we be able to return to the old Deemed export tariff? We're nearly 70 years old now, on a very limited income and have relied on FIT to pay most of our bungalow's energy costs.

QrizB

Are Octopus your current supplier for import? It affects the rate they'll pay for export.

You can give up on deemed export without switching your generation payments. I've just stopped claiming deemed export from EON and have switched export to Octopus, but have left the generation payments with EON.

rarees1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896492#Comment_81896492

Yes, we've been with Octopus for import for nearly a year, If we leave our generation payments with Scottish Power, change to Octopus for export but in the future switch import provider, so have to terminate the Octopus export, how could we claim an export tariff and would it go back to Deemed 50%?

Keep_pedalling

Once you give up your export FIT payments you can’t go back to them, if your SEG payments drop below 5p

QrizB

If we leave our generation payments with Scottish Power, change to Octopus for export but in the future switch import provider, so have to terminate the Octopus export, how could we claim an export tariff

You could stay on Octopus's basic SEG tariff of about 4p/kWh, or switch your export to another supplier (most likely your new import supplier).

… and would it go back to Deemed 50%?

As I understand it, you could return to the FIT export tariff with your FIT supplier but no, it wouldn't be deemed any more - it would be metered.

All FIT suppliers are meant to move to metered export once the customer has an export meter (which generally means a smart meter). t's part of the FIT contract terms. Most of the FIT suppliers have been lax in enforcing this but once you've switched to metered export, that's it.

squirrelpie

All FIT suppliers are meant to move to metered export once the customer has an export meter (which generally means a smart meter).

Do you have a reference for that, please? I thought it was the individual's choice.

QrizB

Do you have a reference for that, please? I thought it was the individual's choice.

My EON Next FIT contract has this to say about deemed export:

8.1 If Your System has an installed capacity of 30kW or less and You don’t have an Export Meter, then You agree to
allow Us to deem the amount of electricity that Your System has exported to the local electricity network using
Ofgem’s guidelines.

Per that clause, deemed export is only allowed where you don't have an export meter. So, if you have an export meter, you can have metered export or no export payments at all.

If your supplier isn't EON Next, your contract might not be identical but is likely to have a similar clause.

We did have a lengthy (and at times heated) discussion of this over on Green and Ethical a few years ago; it was surprising how many people seemed convinced they were entitled to deemed export in perpetuity and hadn't read their contract terms.

FIT suppliers are generally quite lax in this regard, and don't often ask if their generators have had smart meters installed.

jennifernil

We moved both our FIT and import to Octopus in 2024, after getting a Smart meter, so now have the metered Outgoing Octopus export tariff. We found that we exported almost 60% of our generation so our export is now earning much more than previously. Our panels are from late 2011, so we get a very generous FIT payment, but the installation cost was much higher back then.

Our original contract also stated that export would eventually be metered, and that we cannot go back to deemed export now.

We are retired, so mainly home all day, but we do go away in our caravan for about 10 weeks each year, so often are away when generation is at its best.

Reed_Richards

I moved my FIT payments to Eon Next and a few months later I asked them to pay me on the basis of metered rather than deemed export. But that took quite a bit of form filling; I didn't get any sense that they wanted to move me from deemed to metered export even though I had a smart meter that measured export.

rarees1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896657#Comment_81896657

Would the metered export rate still be at the current deemed export rate per kWh? It's just over 5p now, i.e. before we switch to Octopus.

rarees1

That's helpful to know. It's hard to tell whether we export more than 50%. Do you have a battery? We don't have a battery and, until our FIT guarantee comes to an end, we're afraid we might lose out on an income that we rely on being state pensioners.