Commercial SEG Rates 2026: UK Export Tariffs Compared

In detail

The Smart Export Guarantee replaced the Feed-in Tariff in 2020 and is now the standard mechanism by which UK businesses earn revenue from surplus solar generation. The scheme is structurally simple — large suppliers must offer at least one tariff for export — but tariff levels vary by an order of magnitude between best and worst suppliers. As of 2026, the best SEG rates top out around 12p per kWh, with Octopus Energy's Outgoing Agile tariff (variable, tracking the half-hourly wholesale market) often the highest annualised return for systems with daytime-skewed generation. The worst SEG rates sit at the regulatory minimum, around 3p–5p, offered by suppliers who comply with the obligation but don't compete for export business. For commercial systems sized appropriately to demand (i.e. 70%–90% self-consumption), SEG income is a useful but secondary economic line — typically 5%–10% of total system value over 25 years. For oversized systems generating significant surplus, the calculation shifts: at high export volumes, a Power Purchase Agreement with a corporate offtaker often pays materially more than SEG, sometimes 50%–100% better. We model both for any system where export is expected to exceed 30% of generation.

Worked example

Tax treatment / process

1. Install MCS-certified system (or equivalent for >50kW) with half-hourly export meter
2. Apply to chosen SEG supplier with MCS certificate, MPAN, and export meter details
3. Sign export agreement specifying tariff and review terms
4. Receive payments quarterly or monthly based on metered export volumes

Pitfalls to watch

• SEG rates from your import supplier are usually NOT the best rates — switching the export contract separately is often worth it
• Some suppliers tie SEG to import tariff — restricts your ability to switch import supplier
• Half-hourly export metering required — adds a one-off cost
• Tariff often resets after 12–24 months — long-term certainty is limited
• PPAs can pay materially more than SEG for larger systems — worth comparing for >100kW systems

Best paired with these finance structures

Smart Export Guarantee: maximising export income for commercial solar

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is the UK government scheme that requires licensed electricity suppliers (with 150,000+ customers) to offer export tariffs to eligible generators, including commercial solar installations. Unlike its predecessor Feed-in Tariff (FiT), SEG rates are market-set rather than government-fixed — which means shopping around matters.

For commercial solar owners, SEG income is a bonus revenue stream on top of the primary benefit of electricity bill reduction. For a 200kWp commercial installation exporting 30–50% of generation, SEG income might add £3,000–6,000/year. Not transformative, but worth optimising.

SEG eligibility for commercial solar

Maximising SEG income for commercial installations

SEG application process

SEG and PPA arrangements

A critical point for businesses evaluating PPA vs ownership: under a PPA, the developer owns the installation and therefore receives all SEG export income. As the site occupant, you have no entitlement to SEG payments. Over 20 years, this SEG income — which could be £20,000–60,000 on a 200kWp+ system — goes to the developer, not to your business.

This is one of several reasons why solar ownership (via green loan or asset finance) delivers substantially better long-term value than a PPA for most commercially profitable UK businesses with access to credit.

Read the research behind this section: Why commercial SEG rates are lower than the headline tariffs.

Commercial SEG rates: what is verifiable in September 2026

Commercial SEG rates are set by each licensed supplier, change without notice and are mostly advertised for households. The table lists only the tariffs we could read on the supplier's own page on 16 September 2026, with the eligibility condition that decides whether a commercial array can actually get the rate. Where a supplier's page could not be verified on that date it is named without a figure — a number you cannot source is worse than none.

The 30kW trap

The headline rates that appear in comparison articles — 15p, 20p and higher — are almost all customer-exclusive tariffs capped at installations under 30kW, often only for systems the supplier installed itself. A 100–500kWp commercial array does not qualify. What a business can actually access is the open band: 4p/kWh on an any-supplier SEG tariff and roughly 12p/kWh where the array's import supply is moved to a supplier that pays a flat rate to its own customers. That is why the right commercial design decision is self-consumption first, export second.

Worked example: a 250kWp array exporting 30% of its output

A 250kWp roof in central England generating about 950 kWh per kWp produces 237,500 kWh a year. Exporting 30% (71,250 kWh) earns £8,550 a year at 12p/kWh and £2,850 at 4p/kWh — a £5,700 gap on the same array from the tariff choice alone. The other 70% (166,250 kWh) avoids grid import at a 25p/kWh commercial rate, which is worth about £41,500 a year. The self-consumed kilowatt-hour is worth two to six times the exported one on every tariff in the table, so sizing to demand beats sizing to roof space. Model your own site in the payback calculator.

Commercial vs residential SEG: what changes at scale

• Eligibility is the same up to 5MW (50kW for micro-CHP); above 5MW the SEG does not apply and export is sold under a power purchase or export contract instead.
• Metering: export must be measured half-hourly by a settlement-grade meter; most commercial sites already have one, but the export register must be configured and the DNO's export limit respected.
• Contract form: a business signs the supplier's SEG terms as a business customer; the tariff is a contract, not a statutory rate, and can be varied on notice.
• Tax: export income is business income; for a VAT-registered business it is consideration for a supply of electricity, so confirm the VAT position with your adviser before pricing it.

Above 5MW, and the routes that pay more than the SEG

Ofgem's scheme rules cap SEG eligibility at 5MW and require only that a tariff be above zero — there is no floor. For larger sites, or where the SEG band is too thin to matter, three routes usually pay more: a private-wire or sleeved PPA with a neighbouring consumer, an export contract with an aggregator that also sells flexibility, and a merchant export arrangement priced off wholesale. They are compared in the section on business export tariffs beyond the SEG below, and financed through the same structures as the array itself — see power purchase agreements.

Claims table: every figure on this page and its source

Every number and proper noun above is listed here with where it comes from and the date it was checked. If a row is not here, the figure should not be on the page.