EDF Energy Feed in Tariffs - We are making some changes

vic_sf49

Ah, I'd assumed I'd got two statement as I'd emailed my reading in.

Yes, got one on the 5th, the old style one on the 9th, and money yesterday.

inspectorperez

mmmmikey said:

I've now had a second email which contains the same statement that I was issued last week but in the old format. It says payment will be made in 5 days. So it looks to me like they've made a step forward in that the new system is now collecting the data and producing statements, but not got the payment system working yet for everyone so have reverted to the old system for payments. Let's see what happens.

I can see why some on here are thinking of jumping ship, but personally I'll be staying put for now, for 3 reasons:

1. The service has always been good before now and if I take an overall view I'd rate them quite highly. Obviously not at the moment but overall they've been good.

2. Changing FIT providers is not as easy as changing energy suppliers and (as well as the documentation you have to provide) requires some work on the part of the supplier you are leaving. Given that EDF are obviously having problems, it's a fair guess that they'll struggle to offer a quick service to folks that are switching and my guess is that they'll have fixed the current issues before the switch completes anyway.

3. The FIT scheme started in 2010 which is light years ago in IT terms so any supplier that hasn't yet upgraded their system is likely to have to soon, and it's a fair guess they'll run into the same problems as EDF anyway, negating the benefit of moving. And given that the scheme ended in 2019 (??? I think) the systems will need to last another 15 years or so until the final payments are made. Suppliers upgrading their systems now may just about get away with not needing to upgrade.

Not that I'd disagree with the comments about the "crapness" of the current situation, but the pragmatist in me is telling me to stay put at the moment. Better the devil you know....

Having made some enquiries of my own, I certainly agree with you. 

To minimise the risk of a protracted switch and also potential loss of revenue due to slippage between closing reading with old provider and opening reading with new provider, probably best left till winter months when generation is significantly lower.

In my own case, I'm just pondering how EDF are doing their accounting when they are running two sequences of invoice numbers for the same generation revenues. Don't think I ever recall seeing anything like that in my 50 odd years as an accountant.

jennifernil

We moved our FIT and export payments from EDF to Octopus earlier this year, it took a while but there was no loss of payments.    

You need to contact who you want to be the new FIT payer and they request the switch.

For Octopus, they have an on line form to apply then it goes from there.  For the best export payment you will need a smart meter and an export MPAN.  

The best idea is probably to switch first then get your new payer to apply for an export MPAN if required.  Then you can move to metered export afterwards.  That way you should not lose out on any export payments, but best to check what will happen.

For the actual switch, the new payer will agree a switch date with the previous payer and you have to confirm to the previous payer that you do  wish to switch, then give both the previous payer and the new payer the reading on your generation meter on the agreed date.  The previous payer has to agree to the switch going ahead.

We had a date of 16/04, but EDF were slow to agree the switch, even though we had contacted them ahead of the agreed date to confirm we wished to switch, and had then provided the required reading on the switch date.   Octopus had to contact them several times, probably that was down to the changes going on at EDF, but it did all work in the end, and our payments were taken over by Octopus and backdated to 16/04.

EDF eventually paid for the generation and deemed export from our previous generation reading and up to the switch date, so we were paid correctly for everything in the end.

We already had an export MPAN so were able to go directly onto fixed outgoing Octopus.

inspectorperez

Very helpful narrative @jennifernil.

Can I ask please, did Octopus require you to check the installation had been properly registered at the FIT Central Register? It appears to me that this is not a straightforward task and quite possibly involves a FOI request to OFGEM.

I do have a letter dated 2012 from the current provider confirming that the installation was registered at OFGEM but I'm not sure whether this will be adequate for a new provider.

jennifernil

We also only had a letter from our provider EDF saying that our installation ( from 2011) had been “ fully accredited with OFGEM”, rather than some bit of paperwork that Octopus asked for, and we also had our MCS  certificate.  There was some discussion and then they accepted what we had as nothing else was available back then.

mmmmikey

Money is in my account this morning, so not as quick as before but still a lot quicker than many of the other providers. This does have all the hallmarks of  being a temporary blip rather than a policy change so it's to be hoped that all will be back to normal next time.

Another thought on "jumping ship".....

If you are currently receiving export payments through the FIT scheme rather than the newer SEG you are missing out on potentially much better rates. For those that don't know, you can stay on the FIT scheme for your generation payments but just opt out of the export bit and then sell your exports at much better rates. So if you haven't done that yet and are thinking of changing anyway, now might be a good time. You just need to be aware that as EDF are clearly stretched it might end up being a bit tortuous getting them to do their bit of the process.

inspectorperez

mmmmikey said:

Money is in my account this morning, so not as quick as before but still a lot quicker than many of the other providers. This does have all the hallmarks of  being a temporary blip rather than a policy change so it's to be hoped that all will be back to normal next time.

Another thought on "jumping ship".....

If you are currently receiving export payments through the FIT scheme rather than the newer SEG you are missing out on potentially much better rates. For those that don't know, you can stay on the FIT scheme for your generation payments but just opt out of the export bit and then sell your exports at much better rates. So if you haven't done that yet and are thinking of changing anyway, now might be a good time. You just need to be aware that as EDF are clearly stretched it might end up being a bit tortuous getting them to do their bit of the process.

So I similarly received payment this morning by BACS. Approx 10 working days from submission of reading to payment hitting bank account which is about double in time terms from the tried and tested system which has been in operation for about 13 years.

I am interested in what @mmmmikey says about export payments.

My payment today was for 1257 Kwhs generated and included a deemed export payment of one half (628Kwhs) at 5.07p per unit, circa £30. Does anyone know what the equivalent payment would be by a provider such as Octopus?

mmmmikey

inspectorperez said:

mmmmikey said:

Money is in my account this morning, so not as quick as before but still a lot quicker than many of the other providers. This does have all the hallmarks of  being a temporary blip rather than a policy change so it's to be hoped that all will be back to normal next time.

Another thought on "jumping ship".....

If you are currently receiving export payments through the FIT scheme rather than the newer SEG you are missing out on potentially much better rates. For those that don't know, you can stay on the FIT scheme for your generation payments but just opt out of the export bit and then sell your exports at much better rates. So if you haven't done that yet and are thinking of changing anyway, now might be a good time. You just need to be aware that as EDF are clearly stretched it might end up being a bit tortuous getting them to do their bit of the process.

So I similarly received payment this morning by BACS. Approx 10 working days from submission of reading to payment hitting bank account which is about double in time terms from the tried and tested system which has been in operation for about 13 years.

I am interested in what @mmmmikey says about export payments.

My payment today was for 1257 Kwhs generated and included a deemed export payment of one half (628Kwhs) at 5.07p per unit, circa £30. Does anyone know what the equivalent payment would be by a provider such as Octopus?

I'm on Octopus Flux and average about 18p/kWh for export. In order to get the best export rate you need to use them for your supply as well. You'll also need a smart meter to measure your export, and you need to be aware at the moment you are paid on the assumption that half your generated solar energy is exported - you might be exporting more or less than that.

jennifernil

We are on fixed outgoing Octopus at present, 15p per kWh.  You need to be an Octopus customer to get it.  The SEG rate is much less, 5-6p I think.
We usually export more than 50% of our generation .

vic_sf49

inspectorperez said:

mmmmikey said:

Money is in my account this morning, so not as quick as before but still a lot quicker than many of the other providers. This does have all the hallmarks of  being a temporary blip rather than a policy change so it's to be hoped that all will be back to normal next time.

Another thought on "jumping ship".....

If you are currently receiving export payments through the FIT scheme rather than the newer SEG you are missing out on potentially much better rates. For those that don't know, you can stay on the FIT scheme for your generation payments but just opt out of the export bit and then sell your exports at much better rates. So if you haven't done that yet and are thinking of changing anyway, now might be a good time. You just need to be aware that as EDF are clearly stretched it might end up being a bit tortuous getting them to do their bit of the process.

So I similarly received payment this morning by BACS. Approx 10 working days from submission of reading to payment hitting bank account which is about double in time terms from the tried and tested system which has been in operation for about 13 years.

I am interested in what @mmmmikey says about export payments.

My payment today was for 1257 Kwhs generated and included a deemed export payment of one half (628Kwhs) at 5.07p per unit, circa £30. Does anyone know what the equivalent payment would be by a provider such as Octopus?

As I have normal meter readings, and solar generation for 9 years now, and someone on mse kindly mentioned that if you have a smart meter, it should show you your export reading.

It did. Yay. 

So knowing when the smart meter was fitted, I did some in depth  (or more like "that looks about right" ) calculations, and decided to switch deemed export (edf @ 5.07p) to metered export (octopus fixed @15p).

So far, 13Jul - 01Sep, SEG payments vs what they would have been on deemed export, are...

£105.75 (metered) vs £20.38 (deemed)

(The above obvs doesn't includes the much higher Generation payment.)

Solar is a 3.86kw system (or thereabouts), and no battery.

There's no way I get close to using even a fraction of it in summer. Winter I might, as I will run an oil radiator or two, if I have enough spare electric.