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Delay in getting export MPAN

  • 1 February 2023
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I am not an Ovo customer . My FIT paid by Scottish Power.  application made for export guarantee payments made over 8 months ago and I’m now advised that “Ofgem delays” mean another 2/3 months wait. I applied as soon as my smart meter was fitted ( Mar 2022).

any similar experiences? and how to put pressure on?  I was under the impression that all solar pv  producers were encouraged to help national supply.

Whats the issue with Ofgem ( if any?)

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Best answer by BPLightlog 1 February 2023, 11:20

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Not sure why Ofgem would be involved in this at all.

Unless you have two separate solar strings you will only have either FIT (feed in Tariff) or SEG (Smart Export Guarantee) not both. As long as you have your system details, MCS certification (or equivalent) etc it is a matter of registration and acceptance as far as I am aware. 

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I have now been advised that my Export MPAN has been created but not yet registered with my FIT buyer.  How and to whom do I complain about the excessive delays?

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https://ovoenergy.com/feedback if that happens to be OVO.

Otherwise, whoever the FiT/SEG Supplier is

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I have now been advised that my Export MPAN has been created but not yet registered with my FIT buyer.  How and to whom do I complain about the excessive delays?

You say you are with Scottish Power for FIT, so

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/support-centre/complaints

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I enquired of British Gas how long it would take to get registered for Export,  they replied as follows

Thanks for your interest in becoming a British Gas Smart Export Guarantee customer. Unfortunately, we're unable to accept your application because you’re already receiving export payments under the Feed in Tariff (FiT) scheme.

Im sure this is incorrect

comments?
 

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If you are already receiving FiT, you can’t get SEG as well. It sounds like you applied for the wrong scheme.

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@jaybell if you registered for FIT you don’t need to register again for SEG. I may be wrong but it sounds as if you have had a solar system for a while (FIT applications were ended some time ago but existing systems remain on it).

If you have had a smart meter fitted as you mention, you don’t need to re-register and being on the FIT scheme is better financially than SEG. 
Hope that makes sense. 

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BPlightlog..thanks.  I am keeping my FIt and only wish to change my “deemed” export to a buyer under the SEG guarantee.  This is allowed. So I am looking for electricity buyers to take my export, and the British gas enquiry produced the result I quoted above.

if I can export under SEG it will benefit me as I am producing power from panels that are well in excess of my usage and I want to benefit from that with a better rate than the deemed export rate which assumes only 50%.

However if I install storage batteries cab I still get SEG export?

 

 

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BPlightlog..thanks.  I am keeping my FIt and only wish to change my “deemed” export to a buyer under the SEG guarantee.  This is allowed. So I am looking for electricity buyers to take my export, and the British gas enquiry produced the result I quoted above.

if I can export under SEG it will benefit me as I am producing power from panels that are well in excess of my usage and I want to benefit from that with a better rate than the deemed export rate which assumes only 50%.

However if I install storage batteries cab I still get SEG export?

 

 

That is right you can swap your FIT  deemed export for SEG

There is some information here for anyone reading this

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/grants-and-loans/feed-in-tariff/

SEG and battery storage isn't clear cut as it has been left up to suppliers, so you would need to check individual contracts

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/smart-export-guarantee/

Octopus currently process the vast majority of SEG applications, so it would probably be worth asking them if they can offer what you are after.

Have a look at the Outgoing Octopus Product (different from their standard SEG offer) . This does allow batteries, you can charge the batteries from the grid, and you can give up your deemed export FIT for this. There are some time limitations.

From the Octopus website. 

Under FiT guidelines, you get paid for being a generator, and paid for whatever you export.

You won’t be able to receive FiT export payments whilst also being on the Outgoing Octopus tariff. However, you will still be able to receive your generation payments. When you sign up to the Outgoing Octopus, you will be required to opt out of your deemed export payments from your existing FiT supplier (but there’s no requirement to switch your FiT contract to Octopus.)

For new installations (that is, after the FiT closure date of 1/4/2019) we’ll still require a copy of your Microgeneration Certificate Scheme (MSC) certification in order to get you onto the tariff.

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Hi @jaybell I have a FIT scheme not SEG so I’m not sure of the full SEG rules. I do know that under FIT you are not allowed to export from a battery storage system and generally the assumed 50% export is more than actual - yours may of course be quite different. 
Presumably you have a generation meter, separate to the smart meter but then you are looking to use the smart meter to measure export?

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Actually on the page link that @Jeffus posted on SEG, there is something about storage systems.

 

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Actually on the page link that @Jeffus posted on SEG, there is something about storage systems.

 

That is correct. 

For example the Octopus standard SEG product only allows green energy.

The Outgoing Octopus product does allow anything and you can give up your deemed export FIT for that. Probably the most flexible and generous payments at the moment. But i don't know how generous your FIT deemed export is of course. Octopus do warn it may not be worth giving up your deemed FIT payments. 

Plus there are limitations on what regular tariff you can choose (not Octopus Go).  So depends on what you are after. There are quite a few other interesting Octopus tariff you could use with Octopus Outgoing. 

 

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Thanks for all that info, very useful.  I think we all agree that the reply I quoted from British gas  above is incorrect.

 

 

 

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Thanks for all that info, very useful.  I think we all agree that the reply I quoted from British gas  above is incorrect.

You may need to invoke the removal of your FIT export before being able to apply for the SEG version although it sounds like the octopus system has that built in to its process

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Well amazingly I have today had confirmation of my Export Mpan and a promise to get all my export paid. And keeping the current FIT payments is confirmed. Just regular meter readings required

still no clue about whether if batteries are installed, any export payment is still possible even if some of the export comes from batteries rather than the panels…..

Hi , who sent you the export MPAN? I'm not with ovo but have tried the SEG licensee, my supplier and uk power networks, none of whom help. 

 

 

 

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I applied for SEG as soon as my smart meter was installed, March 2022. Huge delay in acknowledging but finally in Feb 2023 got confirmation of Export Mpan and told effective date would be after next FIT reading.   I tried to raise complaints about delay but got nowhere.

A tip…. make sure you know how to read your meter for export, my buyer also needed photographs at start date and  at each reading

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I applied for SEG as soon as my smart meter was installed, March 2022. Huge delay in acknowledging but finally in Feb 2023 got confirmation of Export Mpan and told effective date would be after next FIT reading.   I tried to raise complaints about delay but got nowhere.

A tip…. make sure you know how to read your meter for export, my buyer also needed photographs at start date and  at each reading

Did you take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman? 

Hi jaybell, thanks but who actually sent you the export MPAN?

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Hi again. I get my FIT and  SEG from Scottish Power. They mailed me to say the Export MPAN number had been issued.  My current supplier is British Gas.

I had had many conversations with their Help desk after the application was sent in last March to try and ascertain what the delay was: the response was their SEG

staff were overwhelmed with applications and told me that others companies were in the same situation.   See the various messages on this site in this topic:   All complained about the delay in getting an Export MPAN.  

I did consider going to the Energy Ombudsman and enquired how long it would take to deal with it and the answer was “ at least one month”.  

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