Scottish Power SEG Tariff: SmartGen Rates, Eligibility and How It Compares

ScottishPower offers three Smart Export Guarantee tariffs: SmartGen at 6p per kWh, SmartGen Premium at 12p for ScottishPower import customers, and SmartGen Premium Plus at 15p if ScottishPower installed your system. All three require a certificate from an accredited installer, which rules out almost every plug-in solar owner.

What is the ScottishPower SEG tariff?

The Smart Export Guarantee replaced the FIT scheme in January 2020, and the two work very differently. Under the old Feed-in Tariff the rate was set by government. Under the SEG it is not, so every obligated energy supplier picks its own price for the renewable electricity you export to the grid. That is why the spread is so wide.

ScottishPower sells its export offer as SmartGen and runs three tiers, where most legacy suppliers run two.

One line on its own page deserves pulling out, because it answers a question people ask every winter. These tariffs are variable, the price “can go up or down”, and — the part that matters — “the export price is not linked to any Ofgem price cap or FIT tariff rates”. Your export rate does not track your import bill.

Export is read from the export register of a meter capable of half-hourly readings, and payments follow within a 90-day period.

ScottishPower SEG export rates (August 2026)

Rates as published on ScottishPower’s SEG page, checked 10 August 2026. ScottishPower’s own footnote states prices effective from 2 August 2025. All three are variable and can change — confirm before applying.

Read down that table and the logic is not really about solar. It is about how much of your business ScottishPower already has: the base rate is what you get for generating electricity, and the other two are paid for being a supply customer, then an installation customer.

The base rate is more interesting than it looks. Most suppliers keep anything decent for their own customers and hope you never check the open one — British Gas and EDF both sit at 3p. ScottishPower’s 6p is double that, and you can take it while importing from somebody else.

Who is eligible for the ScottishPower SEG tariff?

ScottishPower publishes six conditions:

• You must own the system that generates the electricity.
• Capacity must not exceed 5 MW, or 50 kW for micro-CHP. Any balcony solar installation is far below this.
• You need a smart meter, AMR or similar that records exports every half hour.
• You need a certificate from a certified installer. ScottishPower names MCS, Flexi-Orb, NICEIC, NAPIT “or a similar certification”.
• Preferably a letter or email from your Distribution Network Operator confirming the system is connected.
• If you already receive FIT Export payment, you must opt out before joining SEG.

The fourth point deserves more attention than it gets. Almost every guide compresses it to “you need MCS”. ScottishPower’s published list is wider — it accepts NICEIC and NAPIT alongside the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, and those are the schemes a qualified electrician is far likelier to hold. If your renewable energy system was fitted properly but outside MCS, do not assume you are excluded.

A wider door is still a door. Every scheme listed certifies work done by a registered installer on a specific solar installation. A kit you take out of a box and connect to your own socket has no installer and no certificate.

How to apply for a ScottishPower SEG tariff

Applications go through ScottishPower’s online application form. Validation takes up to 14 days and checks that your meter can record half-hourly readings. You upload your installer certificate, meter evidence and bank details, and an export MPAN is created if you do not have one. Once you have submitted your application, payments follow within a 90-day period.

One requirement appears nowhere else among the suppliers we checked, and it points at something this site writes about constantly: a letter or email from your DNO confirming the system is connected.

From 27 August 2026, DNO notification becomes mandatory for compliant plug-in solar in Great Britain. So an owner who has done everything properly may hold that exact document and still be unable to apply, because the DNO letter was never the gate. The installer certificate is. Our G98 notification guide for balcony solar covers the notification itself.

How ScottishPower SEG compares to other suppliers

Every rate below was checked on the supplier’s own tariff page on 10 August 2026. We have split “open” from “best available”, because the headline number a supplier advertises is usually not one you can reach.

All figures verified from each supplier’s own tariff page on 10 August 2026. Every one of these SEG export tariffs is variable or fixed-term and can change.

Octopus footnote: the 12p above is the flat Outgoing Octopus rate. Octopus also publishes Prime Outgoing, paying 16p per kWh between 4pm and 7pm and 9p the rest of the day, and Agile Outgoing, which tracks half-hourly day-ahead wholesale prices and is uncapped. This table compares flat rates, so 12p is the like-for-like figure.

On the open rate, ScottishPower’s 6p is joint-best of the six, level with E.ON Next. That goes almost unreported, because comparison tables rank on headline numbers. On the headline its 15p sits mid-table, behind OVO, EDF and E.ON Next — but all three of those better export rates require the supplier to have sold you the installation, which makes them a price on a solar package rather than a tariff you can shop for.

For the full market picture, see our SEG export rates comparison for 2026, and our Octopus SEG tariff guide for the leader on flat rates.

What this means for balcony solar specifically

Two things, and the second surprises people more than the first.

Most readers of this page cannot claim SEG at all. The certificate requirement is not a ScottishPower quirk — every licensee we checked asks the same thing in slightly different words. Legalisation does not change it. SI 2026 No. 848 comes into force on 27 August 2026 and makes compliant plug-in solar lawful to sell and use in Great Britain, but creates no MCS or NICEIC route for a kit you plug in yourself. Our certification tracker records where the product side stands.

Now the second thing. Even if the door opened tomorrow, SEG would barely register at this scale.

Work it through with the numbers behind our own savings calculator. An 800 VA kit — the maximum the Interim Product Specification allows, one device per household under G98 from 27 August 2026 — facing south from a Scottish balcony generates roughly 483 kWh a year, after the 0.78 performance ratio and the tilt factor for an angled bracket. Around 60% is used in the property as it is produced. So about 193 kWh leaves the building.

At SmartGen’s 6p, the electricity you export back to the grid is worth about £11.58 a year. At Premium Plus’s 15p, which a plug-in owner cannot have anyway, roughly £28.95. The 290 kWh you used yourself is worth around £69.60at a 24p import price, because every unit you consume replaces one you would have bought. That is the return, near enough — and it sits inside the government’s reported £70–£110 estimate for a plug-in kit.

Illustrative only: 800 VA south-facing, angled balcony mount, Scottish irradiance, 60% self-consumption, 24p import. Your figures will differ.

Compare that with a 4 kW rooftop array exporting thousands of units a year, where the gap between 6p and 15p is worth real money and picking the right supplier is the decision. At 800 VA it is rounding. The honest advice is to stop optimising for an export rate you probably cannot access, and optimise self-consumption instead — our self-consumption guide covers how.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ScottishPower SEG export rate in 2026?

Three SmartGen rates: 6p per kWh on the open tariff, 12p on Premium for import customers, and 15p on Premium Plus where ScottishPower installed the solar panel system. All are variable. Checked on ScottishPower’s own SEG page on 10 August 2026, with a footnote stating prices effective from 2 August 2025.

Do I have to import my electricity from ScottishPower to get SmartGen?

Not for the base tariff. ScottishPower states plainly that your electricity does not need to be supplied by ScottishPower for you to receive SEG payments from it, so 6p is open however you buy your import. Premium and Premium Plus both need ScottishPower import at the same address as the installation.

Can I get the ScottishPower SEG tariff for balcony or plug-in solar?

Almost certainly not. Every SEG tariff we checked needs a certificate covering an installation carried out by a registered installer, and a plug-in kit you connect yourself has nobody to issue one. Legalisation on 27 August 2026 makes compliant plug-in solar lawful to sell and use in Great Britain but creates no certification route. Balcony solar earns its keep through self-consumption instead.

Can I get ScottishPower SEG with any installer?

Not any, but a wider range than most guides suggest. ScottishPower names MCS, Flexi-Orb, NICEIC, NAPIT “or a similar certification” — broader than the Microgeneration Certification Scheme alone, and worth checking if a qualified electrician installed your solar panels outside MCS. The certificate must cover the installation itself.

How long does a ScottishPower SEG application take, and when do payments arrive?

Validation takes up to 14 days, confirming eligibility and checking your meter can produce a half-hourly export reading. Payments then follow within a 90-day period. Have your certificate, meter details and bank details ready before you start the application form.

Who pays the best SEG rates in the UK?

It depends what you will change. Staying with your current import supplier, ScottishPower and E.ON Next are joint-best at 6p. Willing to switch, Octopus, OVO and E.ON Next all pay around 12–13p. The highest advertised rates — OVO’s 20p, EDF’s 18p, E.ON Next’s 17.5p — all require that supplier to have installed your system, so they behave as part of an installation price rather than a rate you can shop for. Our SEG export rates comparison sets them all out.