Can I export from my home battery? The SEG and storage
A battery and an export tariff pull in different directions: one keeps your solar at home, the other pays you for sending it out. Understanding how they interact is mostly about kWh, and a little about rules.
In short
With a battery, you usually export less solar, because surplus is stored first and only exported once the battery is full. Exported units can still be paid for under the Smart Export Guarantee if your installation and meter qualify. GOV.UK says a battery that can import and export could also be used under the SEG, but supplier terms differ.
How storage changes your export
Without a battery, every kWh of solar the house isn't using at the moment it is made goes out to the grid. With a battery, that surplus charges the battery first, and only flows out once the battery is full. In kWh terms, the battery turns some export into energy used at home later.
How much depends on the season and the battery's size. On long summer days a battery may fill by midday, after which export carries on as before. On short winter days there may be little surplus at all. The explorer on our home page shows, in kWh, how much of a year's solar a quote expects to stay at home with and without storage, capped at 75% and 90% of generation.
The Smart Export Guarantee in brief
The SEG is the arrangement under which licensed electricity suppliers pay small generators for electricity they export. GOV.UK's guide sets out the essentials:
- Only exported units are paid for, measured by a meter that records half-hourly exports, typically a smart meter.
- The installation and the installer must be MCS certified, or equivalent.
- You can choose an export supplier different from the one that sells you electricity.
- It can't be combined with Feed-in Tariff export payments for the same system.
Ofgem adds that SEG tariffs must always be above zero. Beyond that, each supplier sets its own rates and terms. This guide doesn't quote any: rates change, and the right comparison depends on how much you export and when.
Applying for an export tariff
You apply to an export supplier yourself; nothing is arranged for you by the installation. Ofgem publishes a list of the suppliers taking part each year. GOV.UK says those suppliers have to offer an SEG tariff but may choose its terms, such as a fixed or a variable rate, and Ofgem adds that each one sets its own rate and contract length, with what you are paid worked out from export meter readings. The scheme runs in England, Scotland and Wales, and the installation has to be in Great Britain. Tariffs change over time, and GOV.UK suggests checking regularly that yours is still a good fit.
A battery is not on Ofgem's list of eligible technologies, which names solar PV, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion and micro combined heat and power. What qualifies is the generating system; the battery changes how much of its output leaves the house, and when.
Exporting energy stored in a battery
GOV.UK's guidance says a storage device that can import and export could also be used to benefit from the SEG. In practice that raises two questions to put to an export supplier before relying on it:
- Will it pay for exported energy that came from the battery, and does it matter whether that energy was originally solar or bought from the grid?
- Does its tariff pay a fixed rate, or a rate that changes by time of day, which affects when the battery should export?
Some systems can be set to export from the battery at particular times. Whether that makes sense depends entirely on your export and import tariffs, which this energy guide leaves to you and your supplier.
When a battery narrows the choice
Which? warns that a battery can rule a household out of some SEG tariffs, as well as reducing how much is exported. GOV.UK points the same way: a prospective export supplier is the one to say how it treats storage, so ask before you sign up rather than after the battery is in. If your panels are still on the Feed-in Tariff, Which? notes one more difference. A DC-coupled battery is connected before the generation meter and could reduce what that tariff pays, while an AC-coupled battery is connected after it, so the meter still registers the full output of the panels. Storage for existing panels explains the two kinds of coupling.
| Requirement | Panels only | Panels and battery |
|---|---|---|
| Certified installation and installer | Yes | Yes; battery storage is its own MCS technology |
| Half-hourly export meter | Yes | Yes |
| Export tariff above zero | Set by the supplier | Set by the supplier; ask about battery exports |
| Feed-in Tariff export payments as well | No | No |
Practical steps
- Check you have a smart meter recording half-hourly export readings, or ask your supplier to fit one.
- Keep the MCS certificates for the panels and, separately, the battery; an export supplier may ask for them. MCS's rules give the installer 30 calendar days from commissioning to register the installation, so the battery's certificate should follow within about a month.
- Note your export over a few months before and after the battery goes in. The drop shows how much solar the battery is keeping at home.
- If you are on the Feed-in Tariff, ask your FiT supplier how storage affects your arrangement before any work is done.
Exporting also involves the network operator: a system that can send power onto the network is notified under G98 or applied for under G99. See telling the network. For how a battery decides between storing and exporting through a day, read how a solar battery works, and for sizing that leaves room for summer export, what size battery.
How much less you might export
The reduction in export is roughly the extra solar the battery keeps at home over a year. The explorer on the home page works that out in kWh from the two self-use shares in a quote, with our caps applied. As a sense of scale, if a quote expects the share of solar used at home to rise from 35% to 65% on an array making 3,860 kWh a year, about 1,160 kWh less would be exported (our arithmetic, as an illustrative example). The real figure depends on the battery's usable size, your evening use and the weather, so check your export meter after the first few months.
Export limits from the network operator
When a system goes through the G99 route, the network operator's reply can set conditions. If your reply includes a limit on how much may be exported, the battery can help by storing surplus that would otherwise exceed it. Ask your installer how the system is configured to respect any condition, and keep the reply with your paperwork.
A limit set at the start is not fixed for good, but changing it goes back to the operator rather than being a setting in the app. National Grid Electricity Distribution, for example, takes applications to raise or lower a generator's import or export capacity alongside its other requests about existing equipment. If you later add panels or a second battery and want more export headroom, that application is part of the job.
What this page is based on
- GOV.UK guide to the Smart Export Guarantee (read 3 Nov 2026)
- Ofgem scheme page for the Smart Export Guarantee (read 3 Nov 2026)
- MCS Installer Operating Requirements (2026), technologies and use of the MCS mark, PDF (read 2 Nov 2026)
- MCS guidance for installers on telling the network operator (G98 and G99) (read 3 Nov 2026)
- Which? guide to solar panel battery storage (secondary, updated 30 Oct 2026) (read 3 Nov 2026)
- National Grid Electricity Distribution: connecting generation and storage (read 3 Nov 2026)
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