A brown recycled paper envelope appeared in the mail last week. Yes the long awaited Electricity Bill arrived. Yeah!! The first bill since the installation of the Feed-In Meter for my Solar Panels. On opening the bill a number of questions were immediately answered.
1. Was the Bill accurate? - Yes it seemed to be as we had taken various readings throughout the months - amount of electricity generated, used from the grid and exported to the grid.
2. Did we retain our Peak/Off-Peak Tariff? Yes indeed we did - with a charge of 26.381 c/ KwH Peak, and 9.818 c/KwH for Off-Peak.
3. Did we get the 0.66cents Feed-In Tariff promised by our suppler. No!! This created some consternation which was satisfied by reading the fine print on our suppliers web page. It seems that the 66 cents Feed-In Tariff needed to be gained by signing a contract which, on reading, indicated we would lose our Peak/Off-Peak rates. As we had asked to keep these we don't get the 66 cents rate. The billed Feed-in rate is 23.5 c/KwH instead.
4. How does this affect the yearly electricity costs?? Out comes our Excel sheet and using the figures from 2009 winter usage and the meter readings for Jan - Mar 2010, we are ahead by almost $100 by keeping the off-peak.
5. Can we negotiate having the best of both worlds? 66c and Peak/Off-Peak. I will try, but am not sure the supplier will come to the party. I'll keep you posted on that.
So more calculations will come to develop an accurate cost & usage picture for the year.
Showing posts with label feed-in tariff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feed-in tariff. Show all posts
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Peak and Off-peak -will this tariff remain under smart meters?
When getting the new electricity meter installed we encountered the peak/off-peak tariff issue. We were asked by our electricity retailer, who promotes solar systems, to get a time switch installed so we could keep the off peak electrical boost to our solar hot water. This tended to suggest the peak/off-peak tariff is intact.
The installers of the PV system didn't know and veered off the issue when I talked to them. But this was before a large number of installs and changeovers to smart meters had begun. so I hope they might be more familiar with the issue now. The electricity company representative seemed to be the most knowledgeable and helpful over the issue, particularly in getting the smart meter installed after "discovering" the off-peak issue.
The Department of Primary Industries Smart Meters & My Electricity bill information indicates that some off-peak tariffs will remain until time of use rates become available "Once time-of-use rates become available, all energy used in off-peak times can be charged at off-peak rates. Currently, only specific appliances can benefit from off-peak rates." Hopefully Solar Hot Water is a specific appliance or my other half is going to lose his temper (again!).
BUT time will tell and it will be very interesting getting the first bill, for a number of reasons!
One of my colleagues received her bill recently and has generated $100 excess over the electricity used. She has a 1.5 KWh system with a smaller household (and possibly much greener) so we will be comparing notes over billing and performance.
The installers of the PV system didn't know and veered off the issue when I talked to them. But this was before a large number of installs and changeovers to smart meters had begun. so I hope they might be more familiar with the issue now. The electricity company representative seemed to be the most knowledgeable and helpful over the issue, particularly in getting the smart meter installed after "discovering" the off-peak issue.
The Department of Primary Industries Smart Meters & My Electricity bill information indicates that some off-peak tariffs will remain until time of use rates become available "Once time-of-use rates become available, all energy used in off-peak times can be charged at off-peak rates. Currently, only specific appliances can benefit from off-peak rates." Hopefully Solar Hot Water is a specific appliance or my other half is going to lose his temper (again!).
BUT time will tell and it will be very interesting getting the first bill, for a number of reasons!
One of my colleagues received her bill recently and has generated $100 excess over the electricity used. She has a 1.5 KWh system with a smaller household (and possibly much greener) so we will be comparing notes over billing and performance.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Solar Power Rebate
Looks like my solar power rebate application is still under consideration! My provider has got back to me to say all is well and we should be hearing about it soon. Then hopefully we'll see some action.
My only concern is the changeover to a new electricity meter. We currently have a meter that gives an off peak tariff. It will be interesting to see how the new feed-in meter works, if we nmanage to save money, how much electricity we can feed back into the grid and if the Electricity provider does its billing correctly. Reading the "Renew" magazine encourages me to keep good records and check the bills thoroughly. I will also have to read the feed-in tariff info from the Victorian government thoroughly.
Hopefully the data will encourage the family to turn off the computers, radios and TV's when not in use.
Driving around my area I can see that many people are taking up the solar power rebate, so it is obvious many people are taking up the rebate and taking action on climate change ahead of any national scheme.
My only concern is the changeover to a new electricity meter. We currently have a meter that gives an off peak tariff. It will be interesting to see how the new feed-in meter works, if we nmanage to save money, how much electricity we can feed back into the grid and if the Electricity provider does its billing correctly. Reading the "Renew" magazine encourages me to keep good records and check the bills thoroughly. I will also have to read the feed-in tariff info from the Victorian government thoroughly.
Hopefully the data will encourage the family to turn off the computers, radios and TV's when not in use.
Driving around my area I can see that many people are taking up the solar power rebate, so it is obvious many people are taking up the rebate and taking action on climate change ahead of any national scheme.
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