Best SEG Rates 2026: What the Smart Export Guarantee Means for Battery Owners

What is the Smart Export Guarantee?

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a government-mandated scheme, regulated by Ofgem, that requires licensed electricity suppliers with more than 150,000 customers to offer at least one export tariff to households generating their own electricity. It replaced the older Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme, which closed to new applicants in March 2019, with SEG launching in January 2020.

Unlike FiT, which paid a generation tariff regardless of whether you used or exported the power, SEG only pays for units you actually export back to the grid. This makes SEG relevant not just to solar panel owners, but to anyone with a battery capable of exporting stored charge — including standalone batteries with no solar attached, on some tariffs.

Rates change — always check the supplier's current SEG offer. Correct as of July 2026.

How SEG actually works

To receive SEG payments you need an export MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number) — a second meter reference specifically for electricity flowing out of your property, which your installer or supplier sets up alongside your normal import MPAN. Without it, no export payments can be processed, even if your system is physically exporting.

A smart meter capable of recording half-hourly export data is now the practical standard for SEG. Some legacy schemes accepted deemed export estimates (typically 50% of generation), but nearly all current SEG tariffs — and every dynamic one — require half-hourly export readings sent automatically to the supplier. If your smart meter isn't communicating properly, it's worth getting this fixed before switching onto an export tariff, as unresolved connectivity issues are one of the most common reasons households miss out on payments they're entitled to.

Flat SEG rates vs dynamic export rates

There are two broad structures. Flat SEG rates pay a single pence-per-kWh figure for every unit exported, regardless of time of day. These are simple to understand and predictable, which suits households without a battery or with limited ability to control when they export.

Dynamic or smart export rates — such as Octopus's Outgoing Agile or the export side of Flux-style tariffs — change price throughout the day, often half-hourly, tracking wholesale market conditions. These can pay significantly more than flat rates during high-demand evening peaks, but pay less (sometimes close to zero) overnight or during low-demand periods. Dynamic export only really pays off if you have a battery or controllable generation that can be shifted to match the price signal, which is precisely where home battery software becomes relevant.

How 2026 SEG rates compare structurally

Rather than quoting specific pence figures that will likely be out of date by the time you read this, it's more useful to think in bands. Flat SEG tariffs from mainstream suppliers in 2026 broadly sit in a lower-to-mid band, offering steady, predictable income. Dynamic export tariffs have a much wider spread: their average may sit similar to or slightly below flat rates, but with periodic peaks that run well above the top of the flat-rate band during system stress events or high wholesale price windows.

The practical implication is that dynamic tariffs suit households with a battery and the willingness (or automated software) to shift exports into those peak windows, while flat tariffs suit simpler solar-only setups where export happens whenever the sun is generating more than the home is using.

Suppliers considered strong on SEG in 2026

Octopus Energy has built its export offering around dynamic, wholesale-linked pricing, most visibly through its Agile-style export tariffs and its Flux tariff, which pairs a time-of-use import rate with a matching export rate designed for battery owners. Its structure rewards households that can shift stored energy into evening peak windows.

EDF and E.ON Next both offer flat-rate SEG tariffs that are competitive within the flat-rate band, generally aimed at solar households wanting simplicity over active management. British Gas offers SEG tariffs open to both its own customers and, in some cases, non-customers, with a flat structure.

Because supplier strength shifts with wholesale conditions and promotional pricing, always compare current published rates directly on suppliers' sites or via our tariff comparison tools rather than relying on reputation alone — see our wider guide to /tariffs for a fuller supplier-by-supplier breakdown.

Can you take SEG from a different supplier than you buy from?

Yes — and for many households this is the optimal setup. There's no requirement to take your export tariff from the same company that supplies your import electricity. You can, for example, buy your electricity from a supplier with a cheap fixed import rate while taking SEG payments from a completely different supplier offering the best export rate for your setup.

This does mean managing two supplier relationships rather than one, and you'll need to check that your chosen SEG supplier accepts export-only customers (some restrict SEG to their own import customers). But if you're willing to do the comparison work, splitting import and export suppliers is frequently the most profitable option, particularly for battery owners chasing dynamic export peaks.

The battery trade-off: export vs self-use

This is the part many battery owners overlook. Every kWh your battery exports is a kWh that can no longer be used to displace a peak-rate import later in the day. So the real question isn't "what's the SEG rate?" in isolation — it's whether that export rate beats what you'd otherwise save by keeping the energy and using it yourself, adjusted for round-trip losses (typically 85-95% efficient depending on the battery).

Worked example: suppose your peak import rate is around 28p/kWh, and the dynamic export peak on your tariff is around 24p/kWh. Assuming roughly 90% round-trip efficiency, using that stored kWh yourself is worth roughly 25p in avoided import cost — more than the 24p you'd get for exporting it. In this case, self-use beats export, and the battery should prioritise holding charge back for your own peak-time use.

Now suppose the same evening sees a genuine price spike and the dynamic export rate jumps to around 35p/kWh, well above your 28p import rate even after efficiency losses. In that scenario, exporting wins outright, and the battery should discharge to the grid rather than wait for your own evening usage. The crossover point will shift depending on your specific import tariff, export tariff, and battery efficiency, so it's worth recalculating rather than assuming one strategy is always right.

How battery software automates this decision

Manually tracking half-hourly import and export prices to decide whether to hold or discharge isn't realistic for most households, which is why battery control software has become the deciding factor in whether dynamic export tariffs pay off at all. Octopus's own Flux and Agile-linked control logic automatically compares forecast import and export prices and directs the battery accordingly, discharging to the home, to the grid, or holding charge as prices move.

Third-party battery platforms — including GivEnergy's app-based scheduling and Tesla's Powerwall software — offer similar time-of-use optimisation, though the sophistication varies: some only support fixed time windows you set manually, while others pull in live tariff data and optimise automatically. If you're on a dynamic export tariff, checking whether your battery's software genuinely does this price-comparison work (rather than just following a fixed schedule) is one of the most important, and most overlooked, factors in whether the tariff pays off. Our /guides/best-home-battery-uk guide covers which systems handle this well, and if you're weighing up a battery without solar, /guides/battery-storage-without-solar looks at export eligibility for standalone systems specifically.

Getting the full picture on your tariff

SEG rates are only one half of the equation — your import tariff structure matters just as much, particularly if you're comparing time-of-use options. Our breakdown of /tariffs/octopus-tariffs-explained covers how Octopus's various import and export products fit together, and if you're weighing up EV charging alongside battery storage, /tariffs/ev-tariff-comparison is worth a look since EV tariffs often share the same off-peak charging windows your battery will want to use.

Because the right combination of import tariff, export tariff, and battery strategy depends heavily on your own usage pattern, running your numbers through our /calculator before switching is the most reliable way to see whether a dynamic export tariff would actually beat a simpler flat-rate SEG deal for your household.