WARNING SOLAR PANELS & some Siemens S2AS-100/ Siemens S1AS-100 Meters

Cardew

pauldreed wrote: »

In fairness to ASG, here is an extract from a email from ASG.
I know that they don't post here anymore, and I am sure that they would not object to me balancing this discussion.

I must say I don't think that email shows ASG in a good light; and frankly is an abdication of responsibility.

ASG should have checked out this issue during commissioning; and as they didn't should have a program to check all of their systems.

Even had we alerted you, you would still have had to go through the process of having the meter changed and getting a re-imbursement from the power company as there is no other way around it.

Why should the customer have to take this action - ASR should take responsibility.

pauldreed

Cardew wrote: »

I must say I don't think that email shows ASG in a good light; and frankly is an abdication of responsibility.

ASG should have checked out this issue during commissioning; and as they didn't should have a program to check all of their systems.

Why should the customer have to take this action - ASG should take responsibility.

My view too!

furndire

Also, why didn't they alert their customers who have these meters.... so they are admitting to 20 of them. The electric companies must be aware of what is happening, no wonder they are not in a hurry to fit export meters.
Also picking up on majority of these meters have been Siemens S2AS meters so there are other types as well. Mine is a Siemens meter, with a slightly different number.

furndire

Even monitoring the meters roughly hourly its still difficult to work out what is going on.

Doc_N

furndire wrote: »

Also picking up on majority of these meters have been Siemens S2AS meters so there are other types as well. Mine is a Siemens meter, with a slightly different number.

Thanks for this interesting thread. It's made me double-check my meter (also a Siemens S2AS). Not apparently a problem, though, given that the reading last night was 459 and it's now 466, with 21 kWh generated today so far.

furndire

Hopefully you are lucky, and not got a problem, but I would still want to be checking . Our meter started generating at about 8.30 am.

Have you tried turning everything off, and seeing if it is still knocking KWs on to your main meter. The amounts are small, but do it while the light is at its peak. I turned fridges & freezer off for about an hour - in this bright sunlight it was enough to see the difference.

With the sun we have at the moment, we shouldn't be using any in the daytime if just background electric being used. I've tried to work that out by taking readings late at night & as soon as possible in a morning, and have now go a few days worth.

I am like a dog with a bone with this, and really do not want to let it go.

Doc_N

furndire wrote: »

Hopefully you are lucky, and not got a problem, but I would still want to be checking . Our meter started generating at about 8.30 am.

Have you tried turning everything off, and seeing if it is still knocking KWs on to your main meter. The amounts are small, but do it while the light is at its peak. I turned fridges & freezer off for about an hour - in this bright sunlight it was enough to see the difference.

With the sun we have at the moment, we shouldn't be using any in the daytime if just background electric being used. I've tried to work that out by taking readings late at night & as soon as possible in a morning, and have now go a few days worth.

I am like a dog with a bone with this, and really do not want to let it go.

Checking now - I'll feed back later on. [Updated an hour later - meter still reading 466, with another 3kWh generated, so no apparent problem. Certainly worth keeping an eye on, though, as you say.]

furndire

Here's what mine is like for the last few hours produced 21KW, used 15KW The last figure is for what the monitor says we are producing - I've had lge tv, pc & laptop on. most of the time & just background stuff which I used 4KW from 9 pm to 8.45 am.


time Mains Gen. Meter generating

1.05 8.45 93315 2766 773
10.55 93318 2770 2711
11.10 93319 2771 2827
12.15 93321 2774 3364
1.15 93323 2777 3647
4.10 93330 2787 3003


I don't know if you can read the above , but try as I might, I can't get the figures to stay where I edit them to.
I don't know if there is a way of copying from Excel without the figures staying in there grids

keith_r59

Cardew wrote: »

I must say I don't think that email shows ASG in a good light; and frankly is an abdication of responsibility.

ASG should have checked out this issue during commissioning; and as they didn't should have a program to check all of their systems.

Why should the customer have to take this action - ASR should take responsibility.

I agree. If this was happening to me I would simply switch the solar PV system off and leave it to ASG to sort it out with the electricity supplier.

espresso

furndire wrote: »

I am like a dog with a bone with this, and really do not want to let it go.

Well as previously stated the information required to correct your billing/FIT payments is actually stored in your meter, even if the meter is not currently configured to display imported and exported units.

Quoted from the Siemens S2AS-100 / 200 User Manual, not a brochure as dunloadin assumes:

Residential metering
The S2AS meters form a family of solid state single phase meters to cover
the whole range of residential metering applications. Single or two rate
register, pulse output and communcation interface according IEC 1107.
The meters can be used for currents up to 100 A.

The meter is equipped with features to enable the detection of fraud
attempts. The meter has a reverse energy register as well as a register recording the number of power-on hours it sees.

3.4 Memory Access
The following areas of the meter are accessible, with appropriate access security mechanisms, via the IEC1107 interface.
1. Microprocessors RAM (read)
2. Microprocessors RAM (write - selected areas)
3. Non-volatile memory (read)
4. Non-volatile memory (write - selected areas)
Access security is enforced as follows:
1. All write accesses are protected by a security algorithm specific to the
meter.
2. Writing to energy registers is not possible and is protected by a locking
mechanism.
3. Areas such as the calibration table are protected by software locks
which are locked following factory calibration. Software locks may only
be locked via the programming interface, never unlocked.
4. It is also possible to inhibit the write facility to
• all addresses (read only mode)
• all addresses except the active rate selection
These 2 instances cover the requirement that meter definition (single rate, double rate) shall not be modified once the meter has been certified.

3.5.3 Total Register
A “total register“ holds the total accumulation of all the rate registers. This is a separate register - not a calculated register. There are, in fact, two separate total registers - one for import energy and one for export energy.
An option in the tariff software allows export energy to be added and
displayed to the forward total (or Import) register. In all cases, the export and import registers are physically maintained separately.

If you really want to resolve this issue, do insist that your supplier sends out a technical engineer who can read the import and export registers before allowing any meter fitter to simply exchange the meter and take it away, if they decide that is in fact necessary.

It is very unlikely that a meter fitter would be able to read the import and export registers or even understand this problem.