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Replacing an inverter or a failed panel
The fear behind this question is always the same one: that touching a system on an old, high tariff will somehow forfeit it. Repairing it will not.
The short answer. Ofgem's position is that you may repair or replace some or all of the equipment without affecting the accreditation of your installation, provided the installation continues to meet the scheme rules. The line that matters is not whether you changed parts. It is whether you changed the capacity.
Why this is arriving now
475,883 installations on the register were commissioned in 2013 or earlier. Inverters are the component that tends to go first on a domestic system, and a system in its second decade is a system where an inverter has often already been changed once. These are also the installations on the highest rates, which is exactly why their owners hesitate before authorising any work.
Repair and replacement
A failed inverter swapped for an equivalent one, a cracked panel replaced, a faulty isolator changed: these are repairs to an accredited installation, not a new installation. The accreditation, the eligibility date and the tariff band are untouched, and your rate carries on as before. The condition attached is that the installation still meets the scheme rules afterwards, which is a matter for the installer doing the work.
The line that matters is capacity
Modifications that affect the capacity of the installation have to be notified, and capacity is the thing the tariff was calculated on in the first place. Two situations look similar and are not.
Like for like. A replacement of the same declared capacity. The registration does not change, and your band and rate stay as they were.
More than before. Panels replaced with higher output ones, or an extra string added. The additional capacity is an extension, and extensions are paid at the rate current when they are added rather than at your original rate. There are 10,266 extensions on the register already.
That second case is a decision rather than a repair, and the gap between the two rates is usually wide enough to change the answer. It has its own guide: adding panels to a system already on the tariff.
Modern panels are physically and electrically different from 2011 panels, so a like-for-like replacement is not always available. Ask the installer to confirm in writing what the declared capacity will be after the work, because that single figure is what determines whether this is a repair or an extension.
Who to tell
MCS installations. Tell your FIT licensee. That is 857,610 of the installations on the register.
ROO-FIT installations. Tell Ofgem as well, so the Renewable Electricity Register is updated, and then the FIT licensee.
If the meter is the thing that failed
Tell the licensee, and do it before the meter is changed if you possibly can. Your payments are calculated from readings on that meter, so a replacement creates a break in the series that somebody has to reconcile. A photograph of the final reading on the old meter and the first on the new one is the simplest protection against an argument later.
We cannot tell you whether a specific piece of work changes your declared capacity, and we cannot see your registration. That is a question for your installer and your FIT licensee, and it is worth asking both before the work rather than after.
Repair, replacement and notification rules as published by Ofgem in its Feed-in Tariffs guidance for generators. Installation, extension and accreditation counts from the Ofgem Feed-in Tariff installation report of 2025-12-31. Information only, and not technical or financial advice: work on an electrical installation is for a qualified installer.