Premium export tariffs tied to installation

A premium export tariff tied to installation is an export rate a supplier reserves for households that meet one or both of two commercial conditions: buying their import electricity from the same supplier and having the system fitted by the supplier or its installer. In the supplier pages checked on 22 July 2026, flat tied rates reached 25p per kWh against roughly 3p to 6p for an open tariff. Those figures are a dated market snapshot, not permanent prices. The SEG itself lets you sell your export to one company and buy your import from another, so the tie is the supplier’s commercial choice rather than a rule of the scheme.

What the SEG scheme requires and what it leaves to the supplier

The SEG is set by the SEG Order 2019 and Conditions 57 and 58 of the standard electricity supply licence. Within that framework the supplier sets the rate, the contract length and the terms, subject to a single hard rule that the rate must always be above zero pence per kWh. Payment is made on actual metered export, read half-hourly, so a premium rate is paid against the kWh a smart meter records leaving the property.

Your SEG licensee does not have to be your electricity supplier. Ofgem (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, the energy regulator) lets a generator take export payments from one company, buy import electricity from a second and take gas from a third, and it advises generators to shop around for the best export rate. A supplier that says you can only have its top export rate if you also import from it, or if it installed your system, is therefore adding a commercial string rather than passing on a regulatory requirement.

Eligibility for a SEG tariff runs to solar PV, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion and micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP), up to a total installed capacity of 5 MW, or 50 kW for micro-CHP, sited in Great Britain. The premium tiers usually cap qualifying system size well below that, commonly at 15 kW or under 30 kW, with larger systems dropping to a lower rate.

Three tiers of export rate

Across the larger suppliers the same three-step ladder recurs. The rate rises at each step and so does the condition attached to it.

The bands and examples below are the position checked on 22 July 2026. They show the shape of the market; a current supplier quote controls the price.

Tier	Typical rate	Condition
Open, no strings	~3p to 6p per kWh	Any generator, any supplier, any installer
Import-tied	~12p to 15p per kWh	You buy your import electricity from the same supplier
Installer and import-tied (“Exclusive”)	~15p to 25p per kWh flat, or higher time-of-use peaks	The supplier fitted the system and supplies your import

Open tiers exist at almost every supplier for households that already own a system or import elsewhere: E.ON Next Flex Export at 6p, OVO SEG at 4p, EDF’s variable SEG at 3p, Octopus SEG at 4.1p. So Energy runs an export tariff with no import tie at all, telling generators they do not need to buy electricity from So Energy to sign up and can keep their current supplier.

The top tier is linked to a qualifying installation purchase, but that does not always mean the export account must be opened at the point of sale. The decisive wording is in each tariff’s eligibility rules: EDF requires a Contact Solar lead submitted on or after 2 March 2026 that results in an installation, while E.ON names an installation by its own service from 10 November 2025. A household with an unrelated existing system cannot simply switch onto these rates, but an owner whose earlier installation meets the stated condition may still be able to apply. These offers commonly run for 12 months before rolling onto a lower standard tariff.

Installer-tied “Exclusive” tariffs

Several suppliers gate their highest rate on a qualifying installation. Most also require their import supply, but E.ON’s published Premium eligibility does not list that condition, so the terms must be checked supplier by supplier.

The rates in this table were checked on 22 July 2026 and will change over time.

Supplier and tariff	Rate	Condition beyond import supply
Good Energy Solar Savings Exclusive	25p flat, 12-month fixed	Solar and battery installed by Good Energy
OVO SEG Install Exclusive	up to 20p	OVO installs solar and battery; 15p if solar only; system under 30 kW
EDF Export Exclusive 12m V3	18p, 12-month fixed	Contact Solar installation arising from a lead submitted from 2 March 2026; EDF import customer; up to 50 kW
E.ON Next Export Premium v3	17.5p, 12-month fixed	Installed by E.ON Installation Services from 10 November 2025; up to 15 kW; one tariff per property
ScottishPower SmartGen Premium Plus	15p	ScottishPower install and import; a battery-only install qualifies

Good Energy’s 25p was the highest flat rate on the supplier pages checked on 22 July 2026. It needs both solar and a battery installed by Good Energy as well as Good Energy import supply. After 12 months it rolls onto Solar Savings, whose rate at that review was 12p per kWh. The supplier’s own eligibility and contract terms take precedence over comparison pages.

E.ON Next attaches the tightest terms. Its 17.5p Export Premium is a one-per-property rate with no renewals, tied to an install by E.ON’s own arm on or after a set date. ScottishPower’s Premium Plus, at 15p, is the lowest rate that still requires you to install with the supplier, and unusually a battery-only install can qualify.

EDF markets the Export Exclusive alongside a matching import tariff, suggesting the pairing can bring an electricity bill close to zero for a household whose generation, demand and timing fit its model. That is an illustration rather than a result a customer should assume: export income depends on the system, weather, household demand, battery settings and the date the tariff starts.

Import-tied premium tariffs without an installer condition

Several suppliers offer a premium rate gated only on import supply, so a household with an existing system can qualify by switching its electricity account.

British Gas pays 12p per kWh on its Export Premium tariff, open to any British Gas electricity customer with a system up to 15 kW, with no requirement that British Gas fitted it. Systems over 15 kW fall to 8p, and non-customers get 3p. British Gas states you do not have to be an existing customer to earn export payments, but the best rate applies automatically only when it supplies your electricity.

EDF’s Export 12-month rate pays 15p to existing EDF electricity customers with no installer condition. ScottishPower’s SmartGen Premium pays 12p on the same basis. E.ON Next’s Export Exclusive pays 13p to its import customers, and here the tie carries a specific cost: the 13p rate excludes E.ON’s time-of-use import tariffs such as Next Drive, so a household wanting a cheap overnight rate for an EV cannot also hold the premium export rate. OVO’s Beyond Exclusive pays 12p to OVO import customers for systems under 30 kW; an earlier version of the same tariff paid 15p and also required an OVO install, a condition the current version has dropped.

When a premium export tariff is not a SEG tariff

Good Energy is the clearest case where the “SEG” label on a comparison table does not hold. A supplier is only obliged to offer SEG once it has at least 150,000 domestic electricity customers, and a smaller supplier can opt in voluntarily or stay outside the scheme. Good Energy is absent from Ofgem’s mandatory and voluntary licensee lists for the SEG year from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, so Solar Savings is a commercial export tariff rather than a SEG tariff. The classification does not change the advertised rate, but it changes which scheme rules bind the supplier.

Time-of-use peaks and flat rates

Octopus never requires you to install your system with it. Its premium products are tied instead to Octopus import supply, and for the highest rates a battery. They are also time-of-use tariffs, so the headline number is an evening peak rate paid only in a narrow window, not a rate paid on all export.

Intelligent Octopus Flux needs solar, a supported battery and Octopus import supply, with Octopus controlling the battery around its cheap and peak periods. It was temporarily unavailable to new applicants when checked on 22 July 2026. Standard Octopus Flux also combines import and export rates across off-peak, normal and 4pm to 7pm peak periods, with prices that depend on the region and current tariff version. Neither product requires an Octopus installation. Comparing a temporary or regional evening-peak price with Good Energy’s flat 25p overstates its value unless a battery can reliably move a substantial share of export into that window.

What a tied premium rate can cost you

Ofgem recorded £56.97 million of payments for 443.1 GWh of export in 2024-25, an overall realised value of about 12.9p per kWh. That is a weighted outcome across participating installations, not a tariff anyone could necessarily choose. It still shows the broad trade-off: open rates at 3p to 6p sit well below tied offers at 12p to 25p, and the extra value can be offset by a worse import tariff or a more expensive installation.

An import tie rules out a cheaper third-party time-of-use import tariff at the same time, and some suppliers go further: E.ON’s 13p Exclusive explicitly excludes its own time-of-use tariffs such as Next Drive. The comparison that matters is the net cost of import and export together, because a better export rate paired with a worse import rate can leave a household no better off. An installer tie is only useful where the named installer, product and date conditions are met. A fixed Exclusive rate also commonly lasts 12 months before rolling onto a lower standard rate. Export rates are commercial products, so the current supplier page and full terms should be checked before signing an installation or supply contract.