Glossary
Smart Export Guarantee
The GB scheme that pays for renewable electricity exported to the grid. Plug-in solar kits don't normally qualify.
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a GB scheme under which electricity suppliers pay small generators for the renewable electricity they send to the grid.
To be paid under SEG, the government says “you need to show that your installation and installer are certified through the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) or a scheme accredited as equivalent”, and “you must have a meter capable of providing half-hourly export readings” (gov.uk). Plug-in kits are self-installed, so they don’t normally meet the certification requirement. DESNZ’s own impact assessment says that “without an MCS-accredited installation of domestic solar consumers are not entitled to the Smart Export Guarantee in Great Britain” (impact assessment, para 61).
The same assessment notes that some households may already have an export tariff, and that getting one for a plug-in kit would depend on registering it with your DNO and on how supplier offers develop. Any payment outside SEG is up to your supplier.
In practice, plan on being paid nothing for exported power. Our calculator values export at zero unless you enter an export rate yourself.