Smart Export Guarantee Annual Report - April 2024 to March 2025

Launched in 2020, the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a government-backed initiative in Great Britain that ensures small-scale generators have options to be paid for exporting low-carbon electricity to the National Grid. Electricity suppliers subject to the SEG (‘SEG licensees’) must offer at least one export tariff to any eligible small-scale generator. This guarantees a route to market for small-scale low-carbon generators and ensures fair compensation for the electricity they export. 

By providing greater opportunities for consumers to benefit from small-scale low-carbon generation and battery storage technologies, the SEG supports the transition to net zero by increasing the share of clean power and unlocking flexibility within the energy system. 

This annual report covers activity under the SEG between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 (SEG Year 5). It includes details of tariffs offered during Year 5, installations registered, electricity exported, and payments made to generators. 

Note: A spreadsheet of the data used in this report is available below. 

Highlights 

• Market development - The SEG is designed to foster a competitive market where suppliers offer innovative tariff designs and fair prices to attract customers. The growing range of tariffs reflects a robust market that rewards consumers for active, flexible, and smart use of small-scale generation and storage technologies.
• Tariffs offered - During SEG Year 5, 50 tariffs were available from 11 SEG licensees, up from 37 tariffs in Year 4. Of these, 21 tariffs were open to all eligible generators, while 29 tariffs applied only to generators meeting additional criteria (eg, importing electricity from the same supplier).
• Installations registered - In total 270,395 installations were registered to a SEG tariff at the end of Year 5. These had a total installed capacity of 1,585 MW. 99.98% of these installations were solar PV. These numbers are a significant increase on the 166,022 installations with a combined capacity of 967 MW registered at the end of Year 4.
• Electricity exported and payments - A total of 443.1 GWh of low-carbon electricity export was reported and a total of £56.97 million was paid to registered installations. This is significantly up on the 283.1 GWh exported and £30.75 million paid in SEG Year 4.