Smart Export Guarantee

The future benefits of technology such as smart meters and the associated aggregation of small scale generation are not being adequately rewarded, support for solar and wind is being cut off and parliament is fixated solely on one issue.

Another large scale transaction by the electricity and gas supplier has enhanced its standing in the U.K. energy market, with the business now counting more than one million customers.

U.K. Power Networks has tendered 18.2 MW of flexible power capacity to six companies across eight regions. With regular feed-in returns hanging in the wind in the U.K., flexibility and peak time management payments could be an alternative source of income for the solar industry.

An energy finance consultant from the international thinktank has added his voice to demands Theresa May, or her successor, spell out exactly how the decarbonization target will be met, and cited failings on solar as a warning on how not to proceed.

The launch of the U.K. Smart Export Guarantee regime today failed to include a price floor – as predicted by trade body the STA – but the government did not rule out future intervention. Commercial customers, however, still have no way of securing payment for their excess power.

Regulator Ofgem has said that 10 MW of small-scale solar projects have breached the deployment cap, leaving stakeholders uncertain about feed-in tariff payments. A failure to collect FITS could spell disaster for investors, says the U.K.’s Renewable Energy Association.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has proposed a replacement for the flat rate FIT payment regime that is hard to argue with, as it is linked to the actual amount of electricity exported back into the grid.