No smart meter, panels but energy provider won't acknowledge them

TheSaint_2

Hi, I would like to check the advice I gave my dad recently. He had a 4kw solar system installed about 6 months ago. No battery. 

He has an old meter and refuses to change it to smart. The energy company told him he had to have a new meter but he has refused each time they asked him to get it fitted. He said he is not legally required to change the meter and is happy for his old meter to go backwards.
The problem that has come is that his energy provider recently sent him an estimated bill based on the previous 12 months usage pre panels. They refuse to use his actual meter readings that he has been giving every month (with the number for electricity going down).

I advised him to get a smart meter or he will likely continue to get estimates as the energy provider has no idea how much of their energy he is using at night. At the moment he has had no benefit from his generation as he is getting an estimate.
I also told him to get on a feed in tariff with octopus.

Can anyone confirm this is correct. Or is he right in thinking he can stay on an old meter and get paid as the meter runs backwards, or at least not get charged anything for use.

Thanks in advance.

Spies

He can't stay on the old meter,  the energy provider will continue to bill on estimated readings,  he needs a smart meter that can track import and export.

FIT doesn't exist anymore by the way,  its SEG. 

QrizB

TheSaint_2 said:

Can anyone confirm this is correct. Or is he right in thinking he can stay on an old meter and get paid as the meter runs backwards, or at least not get charged anything for use.

If the meter is going backewards, he's not paying for his usage. That's theft (or fraud, or some related crime) and he risks prosecution. He definuitely need to get the meter replaced and to pay the estimated bill.

Alnat1

As your dad has installed the solar I'm pretty sure he is legally required to accept a meter change.

If you want to put it to your him bluntly, by knowingly allowing the meter to run backwards he is stealing electricity as he is stopping the energy company from being able to monitor his use. Maybe that might change his mind?

TheSaint_2

Thanks, I think he will get it done. I had a chat to my mum  and she seemed to take it on board. I will keep at them both to get it sorted.

paul991

The  energy  company have  a right to change the meter but i think he can have a normal non smart meter ,but then  he  wont get seg

Alnat1

The energy company are also possibly billing him based on his previous use so he is not getting any benefit at all out of the solar.

Keep_pedalling

paul991 said:

The  energy  company have  a right to change the meter but i think he can have a normal non smart meter ,but then  he  wont get seg

No he can’t, if he could the replacement meter would have the same issue as the current one.

70sbudgie

A smart meter has 2 MPANs, one for import, one for export. In the days before smart meters, there would be a number for each meter - one for import, one for export.

Not every property can have a smart meter, so in theory he should be able to have a non smart set of meters. However, I suspect there aren't very many of these units about any more, so he is most likely to get a multi channel digital meter (ie a smart meter with the smart functionality turned off).

I believe that the worse case scenario if he doesn't allow the meter operator to change the meter (because it is their property), is that they can cut off his supply. I believe they don't like doing that if they can avoid it, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few scary bills being used as persuasion.

QrizB

Keep_pedalling said:

paul991 said:

The  energy  company have  a right to change the meter but i think he can have a normal non smart meter ,but then  he  wont get seg

No he can’t, if he could the replacement meter would have the same issue as the current one.

That's simply not true. The non-smart meters that are currently fitted )eg. where the property is not suitable for a smart meter) do not run backwards.

Starfrog

I dont have a smart meter but do have solar and battery storage and my meter doesnt run backwards. I obviously pay less electric due to solar and battery storage but dont get any benefit of the power I export at the moment, but today ive finally been given a date next week for my smart meter install so even more savings and opportunities to load the batteries at low price I think your father would be best to get a smart meter if available and I suspect his electric bill will be reduced a lot by doing that which doenst cost anything to install