Are all suppliers like this?

Fighter1986

So we moved six months ago into a lovely house to call our own (finally!); which came with the benefit of solar panels on the roof.

We've also had an EV charger installed at the front of the house so we can charge on our driveway.

British Gas who is our energy supplier started offering an Electric Vehicle charging tariff, with cheap rate electricity between midnight and 5:00 AM.

Lovely, lets have a bit of that. Ordered it up, order froze for weeks. Called to chase, "We'll log a request with the back office", nothing happens.

Log a formal complaint and eventually they figure out they need to replace our meters, get us booked in, and swap out our lovely legacy meters for fancy new smart meters.

Order to switch tariff still stuck, and British Gas website / app not showing our usage, just showing an error.

Use their website chat facility as they push you to do, agent is only capable of copying and pasting a pre-written script about "oh yeah, the usage view on our app is broken for everyone, soz. Oh, and we can't help with EV tariffs, call this number intead".

Call british gas, "We'll log a request with the back office", nothing happens.

Called again today, spoke to a guy who checked and confirmed that our meters are working, and are sending british gas readings every 30 minutes, so there's no issue there, but he can't progress the order to change tariff, so instead... you guessed it, "Logs a request with back office".

I've now raised another formal complaint about the absoute inaction but I'm wondering - 

Is this the same everywhere? 

Fancy marketing advertising superb dual rate tariffs for EV owners, fancy apps promising a detailed view of usage and costings, but in reality a workforce who are completely incapable of actually implementing what is promised and a platform that is clearly broken beyond being able to actually deliver what's being advertised?

dunstonh

Log a formal complaint and eventually they figure out they need to replace our meters, get us booked in, and swap out our lovely legacy meters for fancy new smart meters.

I'm surprised you are on legacy meters with solar.  Normally (so I have been told) you need to be on smart meters

Is this the same everywhere? 

its hit and miss across the board.   The older firms on older software/systems tend to suffer more than the newer ones using better software/systems.

Fighter1986

Ah, the solar install is from 2011, there's a digital but non-smart FIT meter between the inverter and the consumer unit, and a separate import meter from the energy supplier.

The firm who installed the panels get the FIT payments, it was one of those "We'll pay for the panels, and you get the energy but not the FIT payments" deals.

There is a break clause in the contract allowing us to take ownership of the panels and FIT payments but at present it isn't worth it, they clearly made sure of that when they drew up the contract with the last homeowner.

The meter BG have installed does measure imported power, I don't know if I can get any form of payment for that separately but at present we've set up the EV charger to trickle-charge whatever is being generated during the day when either car is at home. 

Main concern is just getting on that tariff for full-pelt overnight charging; it's an absolute farce that energy providers advertise this sheen of magnificense on their wonderful deals but can't actually deliver the product at all. 

QrizB

Fighter1986 said:

Ah, the solar install is from 2011, there's a digital but non-smart FIT meter between the inverter and the consumer unit, and a separate import meter from the energy supplier.

They will be a generation meter, not an export meter.

There's a good chance that it's "smart", after a fashion, too. Do you have to phone the rent-a-roof company every quarter with the reading? Or do they send someone out to read it? If not, it's probably sending the readings to them automatically by GSM.

Fighter1986 said:

The meter BG have installed does measure imported power, I don't know if I can get any form of payment for that separately ...

It should also be measuring export. You can't get paid for exported power as the rent-a-roof company is already being paid for it.

Even where you aren't being paid, having solar on your roof is a benefit. Learn how to make the most of them!

Reed_Richards

QrizB said:

You can't get paid for exported power as the rent-a-roof company is already being paid for it.

They're not being paid for what you actually export, they're being paid for what you are deemed to have exported, being 50% of what you solar panels generated.  So you can actually use anywhere between 0% and 100% of what you generate and it won't affect the payments to the company that owns your panels  

Fighter1986

Yes exactly, the rent-a-roof company get deemed payments because the total design capacity is under a certain limit, although their generation meter is in an externally accessible location if they did ever want actual reads. It's definitely a dumb meter, no MAC address or IMEI. 

As for "getting the most from the panels" this is why we have our EV charger set up to trickle charge surplus energy into whichever car is plugged in during the day on any given day.

But by far and away the biggest saving will be getting that dual rate tariff from british gas sorted... Here's hoping at least one person at British Gas actually knows how to get that sorted 

QrizB

Fighter1986 said:

Yes exactly, the rent-a-roof company get deemed payments because the total design capacity is under a certain limit, although their generation meter is in an externally accessible location if they did ever want actual reads.

I've no idea how that works, then, since the FIT scheme only pays out for actual generation!

Fighter1986 said:

But by far and away the biggest saving will be getting that dual rate tariff from british gas sorted... Here's hoping at least one person at British Gas actually knows how to get that sorted 

If BG continue to be awful, you could try another supplier. EDF and Octopus both offer EV tariffs, and there might be other options too.

Fighter1986

QrizB said:

Fighter1986 said:

Yes exactly, the rent-a-roof company get deemed payments because the total design capacity is under a certain limit, although their generation meter is in an externally accessible location if they did ever want actual reads.

I've no idea how that works, then, since the FIT scheme only pays out for actual generation!

Fighter1986 said:

But by far and away the biggest saving will be getting that dual rate tariff from british gas sorted... Here's hoping at least one person at British Gas actually knows how to get that sorted 

If BG continue to be awful, you could try another supplier. EDF and Octopus both offer EV tariffs, and there might be other options too.

Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) - Payments and tariffs | Ofgem

"Generators may receive deemed export payments for installations with a capacity of 30 kilowatts or less if an export meter is not fitted."

Since only a generation, and not an export meter was fitted, and since the install has a design capacity under 30kw, FIT payments aren't based on actual generation.

Not that it makes any difference to me since I'm not getting the payments anyway 

I think I'll give British Gas another week and if they still can't figure out their a*** from their elbow I'll switch supplier.  

Dolor

There is a deal of confusion here. A number of suppliers make the fitting of a smart meter a precondition of getting onto an EV tariff. 

There is no requirement for those with PV solar installed under the FIT scheme to have a smart meter. PV solar owners who want SEG payments for actual energy exported to the Grid normally need a smart meter - however, suppliers have the discretion to approve SEG where there is an approved export meter fitted. Note this is a different meter from the one that records solar generation. 

Fighter1986

PV installation aside, I have SMETS2 smart meters for electricity and gas which are reporting in to British Gas every 30 minutes. 

British Gas are just being useless. 

QrizB

Fighter1986 said:

QrizB said:

Fighter1986 said:

Yes exactly, the rent-a-roof company get deemed payments because the total design capacity is under a certain limit, although their generation meter is in an externally accessible location if they did ever want actual reads.

I've no idea how that works, then, since the FIT scheme only pays out for actual generation!

Fighter1986 said:

But by far and away the biggest saving will be getting that dual rate tariff from british gas sorted... Here's hoping at least one person at British Gas actually knows how to get that sorted 

If BG continue to be awful, you could try another supplier. EDF and Octopus both offer EV tariffs, and there might be other options too.

Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) - Payments and tariffs | Ofgem

"Generators may receive deemed export payments for installations with a capacity of 30 kilowatts or less if an export meter is not fitted."

Since only a generation, and not an export meter was fitted, and since the install has a design capacity under 30kw, FIT payments aren't based on actual generation.

Sorry, and I don't like labouring the point, but your statement isn't correct, and your quote doesn't say what you think it does. You're confusing generation with export.

FIT payments are based on actual generation. What you don't need, for smaller systems, is metered export.