Smart Export Guarantee Annual Report - April 2023 to March 2024
Reports, plans and updates
- Publication date
- Industry sector
- Supply and Retail Market
- Scheme name
- SEG
Launched in 2020, the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a government-backed initiative in Great Britain which ensures that there are options available for small-scale generators to be paid for exporting low-carbon electricity to the National Grid. Electricity suppliers subject to the SEG (‘SEG licensees’) are required to offer at least one export tariff to any eligible small-scale generators. This is designed to guarantee that there is a route to market for any small-scale low-carbon generators and that they are fairly compensated for the value of their exported electricity. By providing greater opportunities for consumers to benefit from small-scale low-carbon generation and battery storage technologies, the SEG will support the transition to net zero by increasing the share of clean power and unlocking flexibility within the energy system.
This annual report provides an update on activity under the SEG between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 (SEG Year 4). The report provides information on the tariffs offered or in use during the fourth year of the SEG, along with information on the installations registered, the electricity exported, and payments made to generators.
Please note: For those wishing to look at the data used in the report in more detail, a spreadsheet with this information is published below.
Highlights
- during SEG Year 4, there was a total of 42 tariffs from 13 SEG licensees providing or offering support to SEG generators, up from the 39 tariffs available or in use during SEG Year 3. Of the Year 4 tariffs, 21 were available to any eligible generators and 21 were only available to generators that met additional criteria, for example, importing electricity from the same supplier
- the SEG is designed to build a competitive market where suppliers must offer innovative tariff designs and fair prices in order to remain attractive to customers. The continued growth in the range of tariffs on offer reflects the development of competitive and robust market which rewards consumers for active, flexible and smart usage of small-scale generation and storage technologies
- in SEG Year 4, 283.1 GWh of low-carbon electricity export was recorded and a total of £30,749,485 was paid to registered installations. This is a significant increase from 77.3 GWh exported and £7,193,527 paid in SEG Year 3
- of the installations registered in SEG Year 4, 61.3% had an installed capacity between 4 kW and 10 kW. Overall, 96.8% of registered installations had a capacity below 10 kW
- solar PV made up almost 99.98% of installations registered and 99.93% of installed capacity on the SEG in Year 4. There were 69 installations for other technology types – comprised of 39 micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP), 19 wind, nine hydro and two anaerobic digestion (AD) installations