What ScottishPower pays for the electricity your panels send back, on each of its three SmartGen tariffs, who is allowed each one, and how ScottishPower says you apply. Read from its own page, with how it compares to every other supplier we track. Nobody is going to ring you.
Figures on this page last checked 28 September 2026. Each carries its own receipt with its own date.
Rates as of 28 September 2026. Read from ScottishPower's own page (www.scottishpower.co.uk/smart-export-guarantee). If a rate here disagrees with ScottishPower's page today, ScottishPower's page wins.
ScottishPower calls its export tariffs SmartGen, and there are three: SmartGen for anyone, SmartGen Premium for its own electricity customers, and SmartGen Premium Plus for customers whose panels or battery it also installed. All three are variable. Its page is one of the few that tells you plainly that the readings are your job, and that you will not be paid without them.
| Tariff | Rate | Who can get it | Fixed or variable | Group | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SmartGen | 6p/kWh | Anyone | Variable | Open to anyone | 2026-09-28 |
| SmartGen Premium | 12p/kWh | ScottishPower electricity customers | Variable | For that supplier's electricity customers | 2026-09-28 |
| SmartGen Premium Plus | 15p/kWh | ScottishPower installed the system and supplies the electricity | Variable | Where that supplier installed the system | 2026-09-28 |
6p/kWh
pence per kWh exported
Page dated 2 August 2025.
Source: ScottishPower · checked 2026-09-28 · JSON
12p/kWh
pence per kWh exported
Page dated 2 August 2025.
Source: ScottishPower · checked 2026-09-28 · JSON
15p/kWh
pence per kWh exported
Page dated 2 August 2025.
Source: ScottishPower · checked 2026-09-28 · JSON
We keep every supplier's export rates in one table, each read from that supplier's own page. Here is where ScottishPower's rates sit in it, group by group, because a rate only means something against the others you could actually have.
The ranks and the differences in pence are our comparison from the table as we last read it, not figures ScottishPower publishes. Rows paying the same rate share a place. Time-of-use and wholesale-linked tariffs anywhere in the table are left out of the ranking, because they have no single rate to rank. The rate open to anyone runs from 2p/kWh to 13p/kWh across the whole table.
As ScottishPower's own pages put it, in our words:
You apply on ScottishPower's own site. We do not take applications, we do not ask for your details, and nobody pays us for sending you there.
Three variable export tariffs: SmartGen for anyone, SmartGen Premium for ScottishPower electricity customers, SmartGen Premium Plus where ScottishPower also installed the panels or battery
supplier page summary
The source page carries no date. Read 28 September 2026.
Source: ScottishPower · checked 2026-09-28 · JSON
Ofgem lists ScottishPower Energy Retail Limited as a mandatory SEG licensee for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Ofgem publishes which suppliers have told it they are taking part in the Smart Export Guarantee each year. The big ones have no choice: a supplier with enough household customers must offer a tariff. Smaller ones can volunteer.
Mandatory SEG licensees: British Gas Trading Limited; E (Gas and Electricity) Ltd; E.ON Next Energy Limited; EDF Energy Customers Limited; Electricity Plus Supply Limited (trading as Utility Warehouse); Foxglove Energy Supply Limited; Fuse Energy Supply Limited; Octopus Energy Limited; OVO Electricity Ltd; ScottishPower Energy Retail Limited; So Energy Trading Limited; Utilita Energy Limited. Voluntary: Pozitive Energy Ltd; Ruby Electricity Ltd; Smart Pay Energy Ltd; Voltx Power Ltd
suppliers that told Ofgem they are SEG licensees for the SEG year
Covers 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.
Ofgem's rule is that your export payments, your electricity supply and your gas supply can each be with a different company. So you can take an open-to-anyone export tariff from one supplier and keep buying your electricity from another. The catch is in the table: the higher rates are mostly reserved for that supplier's own customers, so switching your export alone gets you the open tier.
You can use one company for export payments and another for your electricity supply
scheme rule
The source page carries no date. Read 28 September 2026.
The same page for other suppliers: Octopus, British Gas, EDF and E.ON Next.
SmartGen pays 6p/kWh and is open to anyone who meets the scheme's rules, whoever supplies their electricity. SmartGen Premium pays 12p/kWh to ScottishPower electricity customers, and SmartGen Premium Plus pays 15p/kWh where ScottishPower also installed the panels or battery. All three are variable, and ScottishPower's page dates the current rates to August 2025.
ScottishPower's export tariff for its own electricity customers, paying 12p/kWh. ScottishPower must supply your import electricity at the same address as the installation. Its page says a customer can move their supply elsewhere and still be paid for export by ScottishPower, but it does not say which tariff you would then be on, and Premium needs ScottishPower supply.
No. ScottishPower's page says your electricity does not need to be supplied by ScottishPower for you to receive SEG payments from it. That gets you SmartGen at 6p/kWh. The two Premium tariffs need ScottishPower supply.
Up to 6 weeks, by ScottishPower's own account: up to 14 days to validate the application, 1 to 2 weeks for the network operator to create the export meter number, then 1 to 2 weeks to register your payment details. A new application is paid from the date you applied, so the wait does not cost you the export.
Every 90 days, with the first payment about 90 days after your contract starts. The condition people miss: you must submit your export meter reading online every 6 months, or ScottishPower says it will not be able to pay you.