Solar tariffs and regulations in the United Kingdom
The Smart Export Guarantee, standing charges and the MCS requirement. Import and export are priced separately in the UK, so the customer's supplier decides what their exported solar is worth.
Every market, every tariff, built in
Net metering, net billing, credit carry-over, feed-in tariffs and hourly or monthly netting all live in the tariff configurator, alongside time-of-use, tiered and demand charge structures. Tune currency, seasons, export rates and VAT, or build a brand-new tariff structure when a market changes the rules. Pre-built for the US, UK, Germany, Türkiye, South Africa, Italy, Spain, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
- Net metering, net billing, and credit carryover
- Time-of-use, tiered, and demand charge structures
- Per-country currency, seasons, and export terms
No net metering, the Smart Export Guarantee instead
The UK settles imports and exports separately. Under the Smart Export Guarantee, licensed suppliers must offer an export tariff above zero for MCS-certified systems up to 5 MW. Nothing runs the meter backwards.
Export rates range from about 3p to over 30p
Floor tariffs sit at 3p to 4p, while suppliers reserve 12p to 13p for customers who also buy their import from them. Time-of-use export tariffs pay far more in the evening peak, reaching roughly 29p to 32p with a battery. The import supplier, not the system, decides the export income.
Standing charges cannot be offset by solar
Every UK supply carries a fixed daily standing charge that no amount of generation reduces, and commercial supplies add metering agent and capacity charges on top. A proposal that models only the unit rate overstates the saving the customer will see.
VAT and MCS
Residential installations carry a zero percent VAT rate until 31 March 2027, after which the reduced rate regime applies. An MCS certificate and a smart meter are both prerequisites for SEG payments, so accreditation is part of the commercial case.
01Does the UK have net metering?+
No. Exports are paid under the Smart Export Guarantee, which is a net billing arrangement: imports are charged at the supply tariff and exports earn a separate, usually lower rate. Modelling a UK system as if exports offset imports one for one will overstate the return.
02Which SEG rate should I model for a customer?+
The one their own supplier offers, because the spread across the market is roughly tenfold. SolarVis ships default export rates for fixed and time-of-use tariffs, and every rate is editable per project so you can quote the customer's actual supplier.
03How do time-of-use export tariffs change a design?+
They move the value from total generation to when the energy reaches the grid. With a battery holding output for the late afternoon peak, the same array can earn several times more per exported kWh, which is why storage and tariff choice have to be modelled together.
04Does solarVis model standing and capacity charges?+
Yes. Daily standing charges, metering agent charges and monthly capacity charges are held separately from the unit rate, so they stay visible on the proposal and are never mistaken for a cost that solar removes.
