Eon Feed in Tariff.

Seanymph

Our Solar Panels were fitted at the beginning November - 9th I think. Eon sent an email confirmation that they had received my paperwork within a week, and a telephone call shortly afterwards confirming that they would pay at the 'old rate'.

Our system is 6.11kw and I was expecting 37.8p a unit.

I received the 'contracts' a couple of days before christmas, but opened them yesterday.

They are offering me 30.7p a unit.

Well reading around the net it appears that is for over 150kw systems.

I thought the rate was set by the government and you got the same whichever supplier you went to?

Are Eon trying a fast one and hoping I'll just sign and send it back and they can pocket 7p a KW for the next 25 years?

Or have i got it wrong and it should be 30.7p

Course I can't phone them, and I'm worried all my calculations are now on faulty figures.

Martyn1981

I think you're right, for a domestic install greater than 4kW but less than 10kW, the 'old rate' was 37.8p, and the 30.7p related to greater than 100kW, 32.9p sitting in between.

The rates for larger sites 50kW+ were revised in August, but I wasn't aware of any changes to the 4-10 range?

Probably just an admin error, as they may deal with very few installs that exceed 4kW.

Eon may be able to muck things up for you for a while (assuming they are wrong that is) but it isn't for them to decide the rate you get, they must simply apply the appropriate one. So long run you will get the right amount (whatever that turns out to be), but sounds like a telephone call is needed once they are back.

Hope it gets sorted for you quickly.

Mart.

Seanymph

Thanks Mart - I had a sleepless night would you believe christmas eve and not through excitement this year that's a big difference from what I expected.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get someone who knows what they are talking about and it will get sorted - it appears I have the 'bigger' rate applied to my not so big and certainly not producing quite what I expected yet install.

rogerblack

Seanymph wrote: »

Thanks Mart - I had a sleepless night would you believe christmas eve and not through excitement this year that's a big difference from what I expected.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get someone who knows what they are talking about and it will get sorted - it appears I have the 'bigger' rate applied to my not so big and certainly not producing quite what I expected yet install.

Don't be silly and rock the boat!
This is the perfect opportunity to install 93kW of panels, now that the price has dropped!

Martyn1981

Seanymph wrote: »

Thanks Mart - I had a sleepless night would you believe christmas eve and not through excitement this year that's a big difference from what I expected.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get someone who knows what they are talking about and it will get sorted - it appears I have the 'bigger' rate applied to my not so big and certainly not producing quite what I expected yet install.

No probs, any chance you could up date what they say. I'm a nosey bloke, so would like to know if there are any changes?

Roger is definitely on to something, do you have room for a 620m2 extension? Then again, don't know what the bill will be from your DNO when you turn the local sub-station into molten slag!

Mart.

Seanymph

Just up the road from me there is a 18,000 panel install - when I look I'm not producing on cloudy days I feel sorry for them with what they aren't producing!

Mind you, all the money is in a company in Europe somewhere apparently...

Martyn1981

Seanymph wrote: »

Just up the road from me there is a 18,000 panel install - when I look I'm not producing on cloudy days I feel sorry for them with what they aren't producing!

Mind you, all the money is in a company in Europe somewhere apparently...

Hope I'm not getting too personal or teaching you to suck eggs, but do you have some form of energy monitor running yet?

Now would be a great time to start getting a feel for daily generation and weather limitations. You'll be blown away at how much variability there is with PV, even on a second to second basis.

When the sun pops out from behind a cloud, and your panels have cooled a little, then from April to September you could see momentary peaks in excess of your systems peak rating (unless the inverter limits it due to DNO compliance). However, due to the different sun to panel angle now, that same brightness may only give you peaks of around 2kW on your system size.

Just recording the TGM (total generation meter) readings each day for a few months will give you a great feel for how the system works, and how best to utilise the output.

Lastly, you might want to visit a site like

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps/pvest.php?lang=en&map=europe

pop in your details and you'll get an estimate of annual production, but more importantly a month by month estimate, very illuminating. Top of my head guess, but depending on your location and system orientation, I'd expect you to get in excess of 75kWh in December, and 100+ in January, and over 600 May, June and July. Wow, I'm very jealous.

One last tip, I'd probably change the systems losses default form 14% down to about 9%, efficiencies seem to have improved considerably, or maybe the panel ratings are on the conservative side.

Have fun.

Mart.

Edit - regarding your comment about not getting what you expected, I can suggest a couple of sites where 'proper experts' (not informed beginners like me) would be able to advise if you think there may be a problem with the system performance. Not sure what this forum's protocols are on mentioning other forums. If ok, I'll post, if not then PM me for some suggestions. M.

Seanymph

I have got about 300kw since 9th November - so I'm happy enough with the performance given the time of year.

Eon took the call and said they would 'send an email to that department' but that they were 'aware contracts had gone out with incorrect tariffs on them'.

Well, thank goodness I didn't just sign it and send it back then!

My fear is that my call was outside the 10 day specified return date - which according to their small print means I have 'refused the contract' - if they have to reissue then I wonder if it'll be 're-issued' at the new rate?

I don't think so - he assured me that they were ignoring the 10 day time limit because it takes that department over a week to read emails........ There was also christmas in between, and a slow post arrival.

But, more people have incorrect contracts according to the man on the phone - I hope everyone checks and doesn't just sign it and send it back with lower values on it.

Seanymph

UPDATE:

Well having been told to give them 14 days I decided to give them a month. Mostly because I get terribly upset at having to deal with things like this on the phone.

This morning they 'can't understand' why something wasn't sent out, and have promised to update the figures and send it by both email and post.

So we'll carry on waiting to see.

There are no problems with the figures though, they agree they were sent out wrongly.

Seanymph

UPDATE:

Eon have now offered me 43.3p per unit on this contract emailed through.

I telephoned and they were fairly indifferent 'email back' was the advise. Having waited a month for a response last time I didn't want to and eventually got put through to someone who would take a message for someone else who was dealing with it (Amanda apparently).

I have now received an email titled 'recall' - which has done nothing.

How can they not know what they are supposed to be paying me? I just don't understand.

*secretly wishes she could sign the one saying 43.3p. *

Seanymph

Update for anyone who is also with EON.

The 'computer' apparently automatically defaulted to 'stand alone' systems if it was over 4kw.

Hence the lower price.

They then manually issued my contract - and got it wrong.

Then finally contracts were issued that got it right.

Apparently it is all on spreadsheets, all data is handled at least twice, and human error is common. So keep tabs on them.