Export Tariffs – Get paid for your energy
In their infinite wisdom the government decided to pull the plug on the Feed in Tariff for new solar PV installs at the end of March 2019.
The feed in tariff payment were split in to two parts, Generation and Export.
- Generation being every kWh you generate from your panels.
- Export being the kWh of energy you don’t use yourself and goes back to the grid.
Originally there was no smart technology to measure the amount being exported, so regardless of how little or how much you actually exported you were paid for 50% of what you generated. This was known as deemed export.
Old Feed in Tariff rates are inflation linked and rise in April each year.
You can find the current rates here.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/feed-tariffs-fit/tariffs-and-payments
As of April 2022, most peoples FIT export rate is 5.99p per unit.
So anyone on the old FIT rates needs to ask themselves are they better staying with inflation linked 6p for 50% of what they generate? Or jump to higher priced exports, but where you only get paid for what you actually export?
But with solar owners self consuming more their generation using batteries, air source heat pumps and PV diverters like myenergi Eddi and Zappi, to water cylinders and EVs respectively. You might be better staying put.
You’ll need to run your own numbers.
See this blog post where I detail my solar generation and export monthly totals going back to September 2018 how adding batteries, diversion to EV via the Zappi and diversion to PV via the Eddi have affected my exports.
https://www.energy-stats.uk/solar-generation-history/
Note: If you do decide to jump ship, you only move the export part of your feed-in-tariff payments. Your generation payments will stay on their inflation linked rates. Some of which are quite lucrative for early solar adopters.
With Octopus Energy there are three export options available:
- Smart Export Guarantee (4.1p per unit)
- Outgoing Fixed (15p per unit)
- Outgoing Agile ( half-hourly price changes based on day-ahead wholesale rates, helping you make the most of the energy you generate, with pricing very much in the same vein as their Agile Import Tariff.)
Note: On 21st September 2022 Octopus raised their Outgoing Fixed rate from 7.5p to 15p per unit.
Note; to qualify for exports your Solar, Wind or Water generation needs to be registered with the DNO so that you are granted an export MPAN number (Meter Point Administration Number). All discussed in the Outgoing Octopus FAQ.
Import / Export Tariff Combinations
Which import tariff you are on dictates which export tariff you can choose.
| Import Tariff | Export Options |
| Go / Go Faster, Intelligent Octopus | Smart Export Guarantee SEG (4.1p per unit) |
| Agile, Flexi, Standard, Fixed, Variable | Outgoing Fixed (15p), Outgoing Agile (variable) |
| Tesla | 10p per unit |
| Have electric from other providers | Smart Export Guarantee (4.1p per unit) |
So the only real headline is that you cannot mix any of the Go variants with Outgoing Agile.
Otherwise every day you could import at 7.5p and then export at much much higher rates during the 4pm to 7pm peak. Talk about having your cake and eating it!!
In September 2022 the average wholesale cost of overnight energy is around 25p per unit. Yet, you’re able to buy it on Go for 7.5p.
Note: for those with batteries there is nothing stopping you charging them from Solar and/or grid and then force discharging when it is profitable.
Fun Fact! During September 2021 export prices on Outgoing Agile peaked at £2.38 per unit.
Remember to follow us on Twitter @energystatsuk as we tweet the next day’s prices every day once released.
You can read all the FAQ on Outgoing Octopus via the Octopus website.
You can also read more about the Smart Export Guarantee scheme over on the Which website.
If you find this information useful and are thinking of joining Octopus Energy, please consider using my referral code or ‘buy me a coffee’ to help support running costs of the website.
Using this referral code will gift you £50 of free credit after signup: https://share.octopus.energy/linen-pearl-869
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We can also be found on Twitter, please follow us @energystatsuk for daily Agile tariff pricing graphs and summaries.
Also, be sure to check out our Dashboard, Download Historical Data and OctoChargeCalc features to help you decide whether these tariffs are the right fit for you.
Note: The past performance of energy pricing is not necessarily a guide to the future.
Regional Outgoing Agile Rates
Note: there are 14 different geographical energy areas in the UK and each one has slightly different pricing as you can see in today’s graph below.
Choose one of the links below to see individual pricing just for that region.
You can also download historical data for all 14 regional areas in CSV format via our Download Data page.