{"id":972,"date":"2015-11-21T09:38:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T09:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulaowenconsulting.co.uk\/?p=972"},"modified":"2018-06-07T10:01:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T10:01:52","slug":"electricity-meter-going-backwards-a-need-for-clear-guidance-from-pv-installers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/2015\/11\/electricity-meter-going-backwards-a-need-for-clear-guidance-from-pv-installers\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity Meter Going Backwards? – A Need for Clear Guidance From PV Installers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to me talking to Winifred Robinson on Radio 4’s\u00a0You & Yours about this issue, here.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Curiously, ever since I\u00a0blogged\u00a0about my confusion regarding my electricity usage\u00a0meter\u00a0running backwards\u00a0following\u00a0a solar PV installation, I’ve\u00a0received 1000s\u00a0‘search term’\u00a0hits\u00a0to my website on this very subject.\u00a0 It seems like there is quite a lot of confusion out there – not just me then!<\/p>\n

To be clear, backward running meters only occur if you have an older, analogue style meter, like the one\u00a0shown below, coupled with a PV system.\u00a0 In this case, every KwH of generated solar PV will be registered,\u00a0consumed locally\u00a0or not,\u00a0 through the electricity usage meter literally running backwards. If you generate more than you use (a possibility\u00a0in summer months), over an extended period you\u00a0could find yourself with a meter reading that is lower than your last meter reading. This is clearly not what is supposed to happen.\u00a0\u00a0Your usage meter should only register the amount of local generated power you use by not turning at all if your generated power meets your needs, and turning more slowly if it partially meets your need and hence your\u00a0demand on the grid is lowered.<\/p>\n

So far I have only come across one other person with an analogue meter plus PV, but she too had no idea that there was anything wrong, and certainly was not told by her PV installer (a different\u00a0company to mine) that this would need to be changed.\u00a0 She has\u00a0just\u00a0celebrated her first anniversary of PV ownership, and hence a year of very low electricity bills too!<\/p>\n

I\u00a0find\u00a0it quite astonishing, and not a little remiss, that the installers are not making this situation\u00a0clear to customers.\u00a0Is it not part of the basic PV installer training to warn people that\u00a0this will be the\u00a0case with analogue style meters, and that they will need to inform their energy company that they will require an upgrade?<\/p>\n

I’m also\u00a0not clear where liability lies in this situation?\u00a0 When you register your PV system with your FiT payment supplier (which does not need to be your energy suppler BTW) you do state what meter you have, but in my experience, and that of the other analogue meter\/PV owner, nothing comes of this.\u00a0 There does not seem to be a recognition within the FiT payment suppller that this is an issue.\u00a0 Which is curious given that they will potentially\u00a0be losing out on revenue if they supply your power too.<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0take the\u00a0situation of\u00a0a PV owner running an analogue meter for years before their energy supplier twigs. Will the householder be liable for paying back the actual amount of electricity they have used from the grid but not paid for?\u00a0 Apart from the issues surrounding the estimating of exactly how much is owed, on which side is the onus to ensure the meter is changed to a digital ‘backstop’ electricity meter promptly?<\/p>\n

If the householder is not informed that it is a problem at the commissioning stage, and doesn’t really understand what is happening (I only realised there might be an issue because\u00a0through the summer I was generating more than I was using, so had a negative meter reading situation) is it their responsibility, are they legally liable?\u00a0 Or is it the responsibility of the FiT payment suppler to check the meter type?\u00a0But if the FiT payment supplier is not the energy supplier, then there is no incentive there either?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to me talking to Winifred Robinson on Radio 4’s\u00a0You & Yours about this issue, here. Curiously, ever since I\u00a0blogged\u00a0about my confusion regarding my electricity usage\u00a0meter\u00a0running backwards\u00a0following\u00a0a solar PV installation, I’ve\u00a0received 1000s\u00a0‘search term’\u00a0hits\u00a0to my website on this very subject.\u00a0 It seems like there is quite a lot of confusion out there – not just me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-renewables"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/2174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}