Updated
No Export Payments Arriving
The panels are generating and exporting, but nothing is being credited for what leaves the house.
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What's happening?
Exporting and being paid for exporting are two separate things, and plenty of working systems do the first without the second. Payment comes through the Smart Export Guarantee, and it does not happen automatically: you have to apply to a supplier that offers a SEG tariff. Ofgem's position is that licensees must offer a tariff to eligible generators, that the rate must always be above zero, and that payments are calculated from export meter readings — which is the clue to the most common failure. If you have no smart meter, or a smart meter running in a dumb mode after a supplier switch, there are no export readings to pay you from. The other frequent blocker is evidence: a supplier taking a domestic solar application will ask for the installation's certification, which for domestic solar means the MCS certificate. Households who inherited a system, or whose installer never issued one, get stuck at that step rather than at the technical one.
What usually causes it?
- Never having applied to a SEG licensee, on the assumption that payments are automatic
- No smart meter, so there are no export readings for the supplier to pay against
- A smart meter that lost its communications after a supplier switch and is no longer sending readings
- No MCS certificate available, so the supplier cannot evidence the installation
- A system inherited with the house, still registered in a previous owner's name
- A legacy feed-in tariff arrangement that pays deemed export, which the household has confused with SEG
- Applying to your import supplier only, when a different licensee offers a rate you could take
Is it dangerous?
Nothing here is a safety matter. The cost of leaving it is purely financial, and it compounds — every month exporting without a tariff is generation given away.
Can I fix it myself?
Work through it in order. Establish whether you are on a legacy feed-in tariff, which is a closed scheme with its own arrangements, or whether you need SEG. Find your MCS certificate — MCS runs a route to look up a certificate for an installation, which is the answer when the paperwork was lost or never handed over at a house sale. Check whether your meter is a smart meter and whether it is actually communicating, which your supplier can confirm. Then apply: SEG tariffs do not have to come from the supplier who sells you your electricity, so it is worth comparing.
When should you call a solar installer?
Call a solar installer if the system has no export meter arrangement at all, if the generation meter or monitoring disagrees with what the supplier says is being exported, or if you have no certification and need the installation inspected and documented before a supplier will accept it. Call your supplier first for anything that is purely metering or account related.
What will the solar installer actually do?
- Confirm the system is genuinely exporting, and that generation and export figures agree
- Establish whether the metering arrangement supports export readings
- Retrieve or reissue installation documentation where the original paperwork is missing
- Inspect and test an undocumented system so its condition can be certified
- Advise where an export limitation device has been set and is capping what leaves the property
Frequently asked questions
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