Change to export payments after smart meter install?

Sterlingtimes

As soon as I had my smart meter installed, OVO moved me onto metered export so for years now I have had to take export readings manually and report to OVO. OVO sent a meter reader to my house expressly to take an export only reading. The reader could not figure out how to take the reading and I had to show him.

MeGrumps

I'm not sure I understand Sterlingtimes. He has an iBoost but does not seem to mind using metered export!?

I am with OVO too and am considering whether to have a smart meter. My FiT contract is with EDF and I send them my generation readings every quarter. Will I be able to continue doing this if I have a smart meter?

pinnks

I am not sure why most of us are overly concerned about moving to metered export. I have 2 immerSUN diverters that feed the immersion heater, underfloor heating in the kitchen and some oil-filled radiators in the living room. I export about 35%. Take the UFH and radiators out of the equation and I am at or about 50% and take the immersion heater out and I am at about 65% export. I doubt many people with or without inverters really export less than 50%.

The question of whether FiT providers can move you to metered export is in the FiT terms and conditions that they are required to operate and which you have signed up to. These are not, as some firms suggest, their T&C but those of the scheme itself. They state that where export is measured via a calibrated meter you get paid on that basis but in the absence of such meter export is deemed to be 50%. If you have a large system (10mWp+ I think) then you are required to have a calibrated meter. So, come the day that we get calibrated meters we will all move over to metered export payments. I will lose out but most people will almost certainly benefit as very few people export less than 50% anyway...

In terms of having your FiT with a licensee other than your energy provider the question of what happens when you get a smart meter must surely sit with how the FiT provider operates. E.On would keep you on estimated export until their meters are calibrated. It sounds as though EDF will be the same.

Well, that's my understanding and I a sure I will be corrected if that is wrong...

mmmmikey

I share your views on export metering. It's always been clear to me that the deemed export payments are only made where export metering is not economic and the 50% approximation will probably have benefited more people than it has disadvantaged. The export payment is just that - a payment for what you export - it seems completely out of keeping with the spirit of the scheme to complain if you find yourself in the position where your no longer paid for exporting something you're not actually exporting.

I am an EDF customer for electricity and also get my FIT payment from them. I have just been informed that when the smart meter that is a condition of my new tarriff is installed, they will inform the green team and I will then go to metered exports. All fair enough and all in keeping with the FIT and supply agreements.

In my case, it will render the immersion controller redundant as I will get more for the export than I will spend on heating the water with E7 overnight.

Solarchaser

I was with edf for about 5 years.
My fit is also with edf.
They installed smart meters a little over 2 years ago.
My electric import increased.... presumably because my old meter was running backwards when solar was exporting, and smart meter doesnt.

They never spoke to me about metered export, and I've still been getting 50% deemed.

Solarchaser

Also I contacted the green team a year or 2 ago to ask about battery storage and increasing my solar array.

They said if I increased the dollar that was going through the fit meter they would need to know, and would reduce the fit according to what was added.
So if I went from 4kw to 5kw they would only pay fit on 80% generated.

However if I added another system unconnected to the fit system, they did not care.

They also advised that extra solar and / or batteries would be a waste of money, as I'd never see the payback/ it would take too long.
Which I thought was really weird advice from the GREEN team.

So I added more solar separate from the fit and added batteries, because I disagreed.
So far it seems they were wrong.

If the pay is for actual export, then you could make a decent case for large DIY solar arrays.

Mine cost about £2500 and if I was being paid 5p/kwh for export, would have made me around £200 in the 7 months of this year so far

Solarchaser

Sorry for multiple posts, I cant seem to edit my posts.
My figure is wrong, it would be about £100 this year, not £200.
Apologies

pinnks

I am interested in your battery experience as my view (and that of many on here) accords with what EDF told you. I generate about 4,500 kWh per year and consume about 3,500 as noted earlier (ignoring diverted leccy). I could in theory be almost self sufficient with batteries, apart from the fact that a big chunk of my excess occurs in the summer meaning I would almost certainly need some import in the winter, even with batteries.

But let's say I could reduce import by another 1,000 kWh. At 15p per unit that would save me £150 per year. Given the life expectancy of batteries and the current cost, how many years would it take to repay the investment at £150 per year?

Zarch

Having moved over to Octopus, my plan is to intentionally move my export from deemed 50% with EDF to Actual export via Octopus.

I'm coming up to 9 months since my solar install and i'm running upto and will probably end up at around 70-75% export for my first year.

Which my maths suggest would make be better off by about £60/year moving away from deemed and the slightly higher 5.5p export payment.

Note: generation payments will continue to come from EDF, its just the export bit i'll be moving. It would appear that the two elements of FIT are not tied.

Solarchaser

My experience with the batteries has been good but not great.

I've had 7.2kwh , so 6kwh useable fitted from November.
The controlling battery says it has done 130 cycles. So that's 780kwh @ 13p a kWh is just over £100 its saved me.
Which isn't ideal for the £2300 I paid for it.
But it's also not the full story, as it only records the times its went from empty to full to empty.

Unfortunately my inverter doesnt work properly with the solarman software so I cannot see the cumulative effect of the partial discharges where it drains a couple of kWh because clouds come over, or even the days where it doesnt get to full charge.

I'd estimate it's around double the original figure.... but that is purely an estimate based on what I think, and what I've witnessed on certain days, not any facts.

I should also add that I bought a electric vehicle around the same time, and a couple of months later added a 6.6kw e/w system on top of my 4kw fit system.

I've just gave my fit in today, so went round the house meters too.
So I can see that despite adding around 25kwh a week to my house load, charging the EV, my annual usage has come down from 5500 last year, to 4300 this year.

Some of that reduction will clearly be the extra panels, but it looks like the biggest reduction has come from the batteries.

Though you can see, it's hard to quantify.

I'd say you are probably borderline at 3500kwh / year.
If you are a high use household like I am, they make good sense for the partial discharges with the washing machine on during the day etc, but if no-one is at home running up the Bill's, I'm not sure they make sense on a purely full to empty discharge.

Zarch, I thought about switching from bulb to octopus, but octopus was 14p/kwh, whereas bulb is still 13p/kwh, so in the winter months it would be more expensive for me.