Buying a house with solar panels

Hi Lotusberry,

Our house is only 3 days in with Solar provided by OVO x10 panels a 5kwh inverter and a 9.5kwh battery both Gen3 GivEnergy. We had a great team erect the scaffolding, fit the panels and commission the system. It went perfectly and we are saving money on our bill already! If you go the battery route get the biggest you can afford and sign up to their battery boost tariff to save even more money.

Enjoy the journey!

Hi,

    I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the FREE green home grant in September 2024, that included 6 solar panels and a 2.49 kwh Solax inverter, along with my loft insulated and Re-boarded 🙂.

Being a OVO Customer that had a third party installer to install my Solar panels i wasn`t eligible for the OVO customer only “exclusive” SEG rate, and eventually exported my surplus energy to Scottish power @ 0.12p kwh, this was the best SEG rate I could find at the time.

For you to be able to export to the grid and get paid you need your “Export Mpan”,

it should look something like this :

Your Export MPAN number for “your new house” is: 117****149335

if the house has exported solar before you might be able to track it down using the link below:

https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/who-is-my-electricity-supplier-and-what-is-my-mpan

If all goes well you should get this: 

You are now a Smart Export Guarantee customer with ScottishPower on our SmartGen tariff at a rate of 12p,

I use my Standard OVO Smart meter to monitor my exported Solar,

Good Luck 

Hey there. I went through this scenario late last year - so very recent memory. 
 

First up I’d say - nothing to worry about and it’ll all be fine to set your mind at rest.
I was bit worried about all the stuff I’d read, and having been through it - it was dead simple. 
I would even have shared the form with you if I literally hadn’t shredded it yesterday.
 

The previous owners of ours had done the ‘inform’ thing and had kindly printed off the 10 page form thingie for me to fill in  filled it in, scanned it, and sent it off to the email address on the form and all was well a wee while later  

Once you’re on the books you will end up sending meter readings from your meter (some folk have two, I only have one) and some money will appear in your account each quarter too

I found the FIT team really easy to contact and speak to when needed.  

Welcome ​@lotusberry and ​@Ksansbury to the OVO Forum, and thanks ​@Ksansbury, ​@johnr64  and ​@scoob198 for your helpful replies. I’ve awarded you all your Solar Panel badges.

​@lotusberry you can sign up to our Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff, and find more info here. You’ll also find some great info in these previous Forum topics 👇

• The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) - Getting paid for the energy you export to the grid - FAQs Tutorial

• Power your solar battery with low cost, greener energy News

• A Solar Sojourn - a user’s tale about getting solar panels fitted to my home Blog

• Solar installed by OVO? We’d love to hear from you Blog

Cheers!

It’s not something that I’m very familiar with (I’m in a housing association flat and don’t have a roof to put solar panels on) but you need to be sure if it’s a “Feed in Tariff” (FiT) or a “Smart Export Guarantee” (SEG)

FIT’s are older but still in use, SEG’s are their replacement for newer installations.

I believe that this is the form that you need to change the ownership of a FIT

https://www.ovobyus.com/m/125373f9a36d2032/original/change-of-ownership-form-1-compressed-1.pdf

But if it’s a SEG the see here:
 

• The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) - Getting paid for the energy you export to the grid - FAQs Tutorial

Hi ​@lotusberry , as Nukecad has mentioned, it’s important that you know if it’s a FIT (Feed In Tariff) account or a SEG (Smart Export Guarantee).

They are quite different and you do need an export MPAN (export register) set up on the smart meter if it’s SEG but for FIT there will be a generation meter which is used to provide readings - as the current owner has mentioned a photo of the meter that will help distinguish between FIT and SEG. For FIT you send readings to the FIT tariff provider when requested which should be each quarter. For SEG the readings are usually automated via the smart meter.

Your FIT/SEG tariff provider does not need to be the same as your energy supplier to the property but as you mention, at least to start with, keeping things as they are is simpler. 
Ofgem administer the FIT scheme and they provide guidance here

I have had a total nightmare trying to move my generated output from Scottish Power to Octopus. The whole process has taken over 12 months . I have tried to complain but no official body or  even this forum has been able to offer any suggestions as to the reason for the delay or how to mitigate it. 

Briefly:  My solar installation dates back to 2011,  Scottish Pwer were chosen to accept my FIt and deemed export.  in 2024 I started the process of getting a smart meter so that I could measure exactly the export being generated.This was fitted.  Applied to Scottish power to move just the generated but not the FIT…. filled in all the transfer forms and then waited 3 months for an Export MPAN.    When this finally arrived I advised Scottish Power  in June 2024 that I wanted to move the generated Export to Octopus where I was already a import customer.  By September 2024 no response in spite of numerous reminders, none acknowledged. Application re-sent 4 times. No comprehension at Scottish Power as to what was requested/required.

At last , in November 2024, SCottish power issued an export MPAN and with this I applied to move  to Octopus just for my Export Generation paying 15p/Kw  as opposed to 4p from Scottish Power.  Photos of all readings ( FIt and Generated) provided as demanded.

Octopus accepted the transfer .    In the meantime  I continued  sending FIt readings to Scottish power and am continuing to do so . However when I sent the first GENERATION reading to Octopus. they had been given the incorrect closure readings  and I received a credit of some £3500 because the FIT reading had been sent and not the generated reading.   This is still under investigation.

There was now a 3 month gap when Scottish Power had been receiving the Generated export but did not reimburse me, only the FIT payment was made.  I queried this but have still had no response and I’ve now given up trying to get this payment which I reckon should have been about £50 and obviously more then the deemed 50% of my FIT.       Their response to queries about this have resulted in mails telling me I am no longer registered with Scottish Power and that the FIt and Generated has been move to Octopus.

I am tearing my hair out trying to get this matter sorted: suggestions?