An export tariff is the unit rate a supplier pays you for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) your home exports to the grid. Under the Smart Export Guarantee, licensed suppliers must offer eligible small-scale generators a way to get paid for that export, but each supplier sets its own rate and product rules. Ofgem's SEG overview is the scheme reference; the pence figure sits on the supplier's outgoing tariff page.
What it means for a home battery
Export income and battery savings are different lines on the spreadsheet. Habo's best-case homepage maths for a 5 kWh EcoFlow STREAM on Octopus Go are about buying cheap night-rate imports and avoiding expensive day-rate imports. They do not assume SEG income. Octopus Go itself needs an EV charged at home (Smart Tariffs terms 2.1.3). If you also have solar, surplus midday generation can either export at your outgoing rate or charge the battery for evening use. When the day import rate is much higher than the export rate, storing for self-use can win on those kWh.
Some outgoing products are flat SEG-style rates. Others, such as time-varying export deals, change through the day. Habo tracks one paused Octopus export path in Octopus Flux and export tariffs. Always check the live supplier page before you bake an export rate into a payback period. For import-side tariff choice see best tariffs for battery storage and the calculator. When you compare quotes, write import peak rate, import off-peak rate and export rate as three separate lines so the battery case stays clear even without solar. Habo's offer is an electrician-wired EcoFlow STREAM from £2,499. Join the waitlist.
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Frequently asked questions
SEG is the scheme that requires licensed suppliers to offer export payments to eligible generators. The export tariff is the pence-per-kWh rate on the product you join.
Export payments are for electricity you send to the grid from an eligible generator. A battery on its own that only shifts cheap grid imports is not an export product.
Compare your export rate with the day-time import rate you avoid by storing the surplus. A higher import rate often makes self-use through a battery more valuable.
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Electrician-wired EcoFlow STREAM from £2,499. Habo will try to serve anyone who registers in an area where we have an electrician. Nothing to pay today.
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