Good Energy launches new smart export product for Feed-in-Tariff customers

Energy supplier Good Energy is launching a new smart export product for its Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) customers.

This marks an “evolution for the business”, the company said, as the scalability of smart export offers significant potential.

Customers that choose to move to a smart export will receive payment for the actual amount of electricity they export, as opposed to the 50% of what they generate covered by the FiT scheme’s standard estimate of the proportion of a customer’s export.

This means that customers that export more than 50% of the electricity they generate through technologies such as solar panels and micro-wind turbines could earn more.

“Good Energy has long been a pioneer in supporting small-scale clean energy generation, and this launch continues that tradition of innovation,” said Nigel Pocklington, CEO, Good Energy.

“As a leading player in helping homes and businesses generate their own clean power, it’s a big moment not only for Good Energy but for a future decarbonised, decentralised and digitalised electricity grid. The switch from deemed to actual metered export for tens of thousands of small generators, and all the data that will provide, is a huge step in making that future a reality.”

The launch follows Good Energy running a pilot of the smart export product back in December 2022.

Customers that now choose to take up the product will continue to receive their FiT unit rates, but will have the opportunity to earn more based on how much they export.

Good Energy is planning to roll this service out to 80,000 of its customers by the end of 2023. It currently serves 180,000 FiT customers.

The FiT scheme came to a close in 2019, and was replaced by the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), wherein suppliers with more than 150,000 customers must offer a tariff to those that export their electricity back to the grid.

Good Energy’s new smart export product is not an SEG, and the company does not currently offer a set SEG tariff although its SmartGen tariff and its PPAs are SEG compliant for installations of 20kW and above.

It noted that following today’s launch of the smart export product that it had plans to introduce a domestic export tariff for households in the first few months of 2023.

According to the company, Good Energy is the UK's largest voluntary FiT administrator. In 2022, it had to pay out over £650,000 in compensation after an investigation by Ofgem found a number of customers were charged an unauthorised administration fee from their licensees.

Beyond the launch of the new smart export product, Good Energy is further cementing its role in the domestic solar space. In December 2022, it acquired Igloo Works, allowing it to now offer solar system installations along with heat pumps.

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