How to bypass the middlemen

malvinG

I don't know about you but I am fed up dealing with electric/gas utility companies.

Some of you are lucky that you are able to install a solar panel or use wood stove. But I live on the 1st floor flat with no garden, no chimney so there is no chance of me to install such thing.

You have the option to choose which utility companies you sign with but you do not have to 'buy' electricity/gas from the energy companies.

I heard that you can ask utility company to take the meter off and install your own (by qualified engineer). Then you sign a contract with the department of energy (can't remember which council/ministry of....).

Does anyone know how to do this? Where can I find step by step instruction?

molerat

You can't, it is a load of rubbish which is probably the reason you can't find any info on it.

Ich_2

I heard that you can ask utility company to take the meter off and install your own (by qualified engineer). Then you sign a contract with the department of energy (can't remember which council/ministry of....).

Does anyone know how to do this? Where can I find step by step instruction?

Total, total urban untruth

rogerblack

Ich wrote: »

Total, total urban untruth

In principle, you could probably register as an electricity company.
I would be truly astonished if this could be done for £10K, and setup costs of £1M would not surprise me.
I would also be surprised if you could purchase energy on the energy markets in quantities that would be sane for domestic use.

spiro

malvinG wrote: »

I heard that you can ask utility company to take the meter off and install your own (by qualified engineer). Then you sign a contract with the department of energy (can't remember which council/ministry of....).

Does anyone know how to do this? Where can I find step by step instruction?

The part abut you being allowed to have your own meter is true but it must be an approved meter. HOWEVER you still have to have an electricity supplier to actually supply the power. Same is true for gas.

[Deleted User]

I met someone today who had bought his own solar panels off ebay and mounted them on the shed and wired it all up with its meter, no middle men involved at all. He said Brit Gas , the supplier were informed etc.They are not on the roof, just a large south facing shed

Cardew

sacsquacco wrote: »

I met someone today who had bought his own solar panels off ebay and mounted them on the shed and wired it all up with its meter, no middle men involved at all. He said Brit Gas , the supplier were informed etc.They are not on the roof, just a large south facing shed

Where is the generated electricity from the shed used?

[Deleted User]

Cardew wrote: »

Where is the generated electricity from the shed used?

In the house, hed only got four up but was planning on more, They had a meter set up to show the generation level. He got them cheap on ebay. Said it was all above board with the suppliers

rogerblack

sacsquacco wrote: »

In the house, hed only got four up but was planning on more, They had a meter set up to show the generation level. He got them cheap on ebay. Said it was all above board with the suppliers

My understanding is that this is difficult or impossible.
Is it possible that he has a meter that runs backwards, and he has sent a letter to his electricity company, which hasn't gotten acted on.

If he has a 1kW array of panels, it would run the meter backwards during the day, but not make the meter go backwards month-month, with even a fairly low level of energy use.

This is problematic - and not a usually authorised way of doing things.

You absolutely can't install solar panels yourself, without authorisation, and get feed-in-tarrif payments.

Every time someones asked about being able to do this (including me) - nobody has come up with a way that would let you get any payments from self-installed panels, or legally 'net meter' - run your meter backwards.

It's really quite annoying - as if it was possible, panels installed this way would pay back in around 10 years in some cases.

Cardew

There is also the problem of 'islanding'.

In essence as PV panels can act as a generator feeding power to the grid, they can be a danger to people working on electricity supply lines.

Islanding refers to the condition in which a distributed generator continues to power a location even though power from the electric utility is no longer present. Islanding can be dangerous to utility workers, who may not realize that a circuit is still
powered, even though there's no power from the
electrical
grid
. For that reason, distributed generators must detect islanding
and immediately stop producing power; this is referred to as anti-islanding.


In the case of a utility
blackout in a grid-connected PV system, the solar
panels will continue to deliver power as long as the sun is shining. In this
case, the supply line becomes an "island" with power surrounded by a "sea" of
unpowered lines. For this reason,
solar inverters that are designed to supply power to
the grid are generally required to have automatic anti-islanding circuitry in
them.


In intentional islanding, the generator disconnects from the grid, and forces
the distributed generator to power the local circuit. This is often used as a
power backup system for buildings that normally sell their power to the
grid.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for this info, the bloke was very happy with his self set up and went to great pains to say how it was all authorised, and how much he has saved on previous quarters electric. If he has got his meter running back wards no wonder hes happy. I will make a report back to the supplier (B.Gas ) about this. I was surprised when he was saying how much the savings were as 4 panels up wont generate much, especially with the weather we ve had for the last 5 months