Smart Meters are export meters

Oblong31

I believe SME expert advice on smart meters and solar is wrong.  

My understanding and information is that all electricity smart meters are required by regulations to record exports of electricity.  I have an early Smets1 Scottish power meter and if you know which buttons to press on the meter (not the remote) the cumulative energy export value (called Export Totals) is displayed on the meter.  This value can’t be displayed on the remote display and this may be making people think that they do not measure energy exports.  Only instructions for smart meters are how to operate the remote display I had to use trial and error pressing the buttons on the smart meter to find the export reading.  On my meter the centre button is ‘enter’ the top and bottom button are for moving through the menu options.
 Not certain what the rules are but if you have a smart meter you may be obliged to use the export reading from the meter when claiming your export payments rather than the 50% of Feed in value.   I did read that if you have an export meter you have to submit its readings when claiming your payments. As I export up to 75% of my feed in value it is no brainier for me to use the meter export reading.  Given my solar installer did not know that smart meters are export meters I am not certain who you would ask about having to use the export meter readings.  Does anyone know what the rules are?
Why are smart meter remote displays not required to display export values, current, daily weekly etc?  This seems to be a big oversight in the regulations for meters.

[Deleted User]

Smart meters do indeed record export data. I am in receipt of SEG payments for all the energy exported from my PV solar and battery. For a supplier to use the export side of the meter for SEG payments, the meter has to have two MPANs: one for import and the other for export.

In my opinion there is absolutely no point in adding export values to the IHD as legacy FITs are based on generation not export. Also,  for most PV solar installations occurring today, there are a plethora of Apps around which show grid usage; export, etc. For example, I have SolarEdge; Tesla and MyEnergi. I am quite happy for the IHD to stay in its box.

MWT

Oblong31 said:

Does anyone know what the rules are?

Why are smart meter remote displays not required to display export values, current, daily weekly etc?  This seems to be a big oversight in the regulations for meters.

The rules of the FiT scheme are that if you have a calibrated export meter fitted then you are obliged to use that in place of the deemed export.

The stance of most of the energy companies was that the SMETS1 meters were not properly calibrated for export and so you could remain on deemed export.

Now you will find that with SMETS2 meters the position has changed and increasingly you will be required to change to use the metered export reading but to do that remotely the supplier needs to apply for a 2nd MPAN for the export side of the meter.

Not all suppliers are ready for that yet so you'll get different answers depending upon who you ask but under the FiT rules, they should all be using the export meter reading...

Re the IHD, what is or is not displayed on them has considerably more latitude under the regulations than the actual meter, so I wouldn't expect a change there...

tim_p

Would a second MPAN not incur another standing charge?

[Deleted User]

tim_p said:

Would a second MPAN not incur another standing charge?

All tariffs, import and export, have to include a daily standing charge; however, Ofgem does not stipulate what the standing charge has to be. All of the outgoing tariffs appear to have the standing charge set at zero p/day.  Octopus also offers an import/export tariff for Powerwall 2 owners which has an import/export rate of 12p/kWh and a single standing charge of 22p/day.

MWT

tim_p said:

Would a second MPAN not incur another standing charge?

It would be somewhat perverse to have a standing charge on an export MPAN, it would perhaps be more consistent to have a standing payment though

In reality, no, there are no standing charges or payments on the export MPAN.

MartinGreenwood

This website seems to answer your questions in their Q&A www.smartme.co.uk/export.html.

QrizB

Oblong31 said:

I believe SME expert advice on smart meters and solar is wrong.  

Not certain what the rules are but if you have a smart meter you may be obliged to use the export reading from the meter when claiming your export payments rather than the 50% of Feed in value.   I did read that if you have an export meter you have to submit its readings when claiming your payments. As I export up to 75% of my feed in value it is no brainier for me to use the meter export reading.  Given my solar installer did not know that smart meters are export meters I am not certain who you would ask about having to use the export meter readings.  Does anyone know what the rules are?

I'm on the FIT scheme with E.On Next (was nPower). I've just requested smart meters from my current energy supplier EDF. EDF's sign-up questionnaire includes the question "do you generate your own electricity?" and if you answer "yes" you get a box appear that tells you that you will have to tell your FIT provider and that they may move you from deemed export to metered export.

Edit to add: if moved to metered export, I/you will get the option of switching from the FIT export rate to the SEG export rate. Depending on supplier and FIT vintage the SEG may be more lucrative.

[Deleted User]

QrizB said:

Edit to add: if moved to metered export, I/you will get thwe option of switching from the FIT export rate to the SEG export rate. Depending on supplier and FIT vintage the SEG may be more lucrative.

Yes you can agree to forgo FIT export in favour of SEG. A number of people who have extended the size of their original array have elected to put all their export under SEG. It is also possible to switch away from SEG back to FIT export after 12 months (according to one supplier’s website).