PV Feed In Tariff

Patmwgs

Northumberland wrote: »

The Welcome Letter came in the post just a couple of days after I signed up online, must have been sent out by Energia on the same day I did the online application or the day after. But the Welcome letter says very little, no account number or anything, but it does confirm the rates as per the website.

Do you have solar pv with your day and night rate meter.?

Northumberland

Oh yes, nearly 6kWp. In spite of arguments elsewhere in renewable engergies forum some time ago, that charging batteries on night rate for use in the day is not very economical (because of battery degradation) that is what I am doing, so I am actually using very little day rate at all. I have 4 pylontech 2kWh (useable) batteries, - the challenge is to guess how much sun there will be the next day the night before and only charge the batteries up enough so there is space left for the excess power generated during the day to fully charge the batteries. The website solcast is a wonderful help for this - but I just do it manually - clever guys reporting on this forum have made an automated link between the Solcast forecast and their hybrid inverter so this happens automatically.

Patmwgs

6kw is a good size array. The eddi would take out all the guess work but thats more expense.
I want to switch to the night rate but dont want to lose the feed in tariff payment. Today should see a good part of your 6kw

ec_pc

Northumberland wrote: »

The Welcome Letter came in the post just a couple of days after I signed up online, must have been sent out by Energia on the same day I did the online application or the day after. But the Welcome letter says very little, no account number or anything, but it does confirm the rates as per the website.

From recent experience, Energia's account management is poor. Lovely people in their call centre, but I joined them in January on the night/day rate and I was set up on their standard tarrfif of approx 19c a unit. Still not sorted and first bill came in the other day which was all wrong.

Keep a close eye on them is my advice. Swapping over from Electric Ireland was an absolute nightmare with incorrect readings etc etc.

harderthanf

I am getting my ground array installed in the next 2 weeks. I have the old (Soviet era!!) meter currently in. Until the FIT comes in I will most likely be exporting a lot more than I am using (in the summer anyway). Someone once told me that the old meters will actually start spinning backwards - does anyone know if this is correct or will I effectively be giving the ESB free energy untiil FIT/smart meters are in place?

slave1

There's no way to tell until after your PV install, but if it does keep it as you are effectively getting net metering!

Northumberland

From my experience with a set up installed outside of Ireland, I think that your meter will spin backwards. You just need to watch it and adjust the export settings on your inverter so that it does not spin back so much that you get a negative bill, at the end of the month, that might raise eyebrows somewhere!

If you search online for a while you will find that meters spinning backwards was very common in England some years ago, and more recently I think in Australia, of course the power companies took a dim view of this.

Patmwgs

Does anyone know if you have a day night meter installed, will you get charged if you get a smart meter installed? I want to get a day night one untill smart meter finally gets fitted

ec_pc

Patmwgs wrote: »

Does anyone know if you have a day night meter installed, will you get charged if you get a smart meter installed? I want to get a day night one untill smart meter finally gets fitted

No charge, it should be a free replacement.

jkforde

any leak about the likely MSS feed-in rate? and if the grant was already paid, would that really exclude that system from feed-in for X amount of time?

ParkRunner

jkforde wrote: »

any leak about the likely MSS feed-in rate? and if the grant was already paid, would that really exclude that system from feed-in for X amount of time?

Seems to be that all systems will qualify for some feed in tariff rate with those who got the grant receiving about half of what a person who installs without a grant would get 5c v 10c per kWh up to a max of 30% of power exported - all subject to official confirmation.

SD_DRACULA

That is essentially worthless then. 30% of generation what a joke

TheWonderLlama

I see Energia are offering to buy back excess generation at 7.4c/Kwh. But only if you have a particular battery installed and only on a particular tariff though. Better than a kick in the teeth, i suppose.

https://www.energia.ie/plans-and-switching-info/grid

drdidlittle

Mad prices for their systems

the_amazing_raisin

drdidlittle wrote: »

Mad prices for their systems

Yeah and check the unit price for import, 21c/kWh :eek:

It'd almost be cheaper generate electricity by burning money

slave1

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

That is essentially worthless then. 30% of generation what a joke

Totally agree, especially with loss of straight night/day meter which we will need in Winter and you have to take a Smart Meter to avail of FIT.

slave1

TheWonderLlama wrote: »

I see Energia are offering to buy back excess generation at 7.4c/Kwh. But only if you have a particular battery installed and only on a particular tariff though. Better than a kick in the teeth, i suppose.

https://www.energia.ie/plans-and-switching-info/grid

Not in a million years is that in any way financially viable from our perspective

ParkRunner

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

That is essentially worthless then. 30% of generation what a joke

slave1 wrote: »

Totally agree, especially with loss of straight night/day meter which we will need in Winter and you have to take a Smart Meter to avail of FIT.

It probably won’t be worth a whole lot alright but on a good day it should negate the need financially for a battery as the small bit being imported is offset by a high export. Yesterday I imported only 2.5kwh and exported 20kwh over 24 hours without a battery. I do have EV/hybrid plug-in plans though for next year.

It will be interesting to see if the generation figures will be looked at on a daily basis or over a two month billing period and if you could end up in credit in the event of a really good few weeks.

jkforde

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

That is essentially worthless then. 30% of generation what a joke

what on earth is the policy rationale behind the 30% limit? if any exists...
i smell legacy myopic semi-state influence in the ether..

daheff

jkforde wrote: »

what on earth is the policy rationale behind the 30% limit? if any exists...��
i smell legacy semi-state influence in the ether..

It's all about money....for them

KCross

jkforde wrote: »

what on earth is the policy rationale behind the 30% limit? if any exists...
i smell legacy myopic semi-state influence in the ether..

It only applies to the premium tariff, which is grant funded, so they want people sizing their systems for self consumption not as money making systems.

the_amazing_raisin

KCross wrote: »

It only applies to the premium tariff, which is grant funded, so they want people sizing their systems for self consumption not as money making systems.

Yeah but a percentage seems bizarre rather than a fixed kWh amount. I mean what stops me installing an oversized array to get a bigger premium payment?

KCross

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

Yeah but a percentage seems bizarre rather than a fixed kWh amount. I mean what stops me installing an oversized array to get a bigger premium payment?

Because its tied to the grant and you will only get a % based off the size of the array you have been grant aided for.

You can install a bigger array afterwards (without a grant) and you will get paid for all the excess at the base rate but you'll only get the premium payment for a subset of it.

Its a way to protect the taxpayer also since this is being taxpayer funded. Not saying this is all a good idea, just stating the reasons they gave for it.

And, of course, nothing is yet decided so who knows what exactly they will actually go with. They could drop that 30% thing.

slave1

Sure that's no logic, I put in a 7.2kWp system but only 4kWp was grant aided, whatever I put in above grant aid is not relevant to FIT limitations.
If I'm over producing then that's 100% renewable generation they are getting so how can there be a problem with that.
It's not like the ESB will refuse this PV generation, they'll just refuse to pay for it, and of course they will still charge somebody for using it....go figure

KCross

slave1 wrote: »

Sure that's no logic, I put in a 7.2kWp system but only 4kWp was grant aided, whatever I put in above grant aid is not relevant to FIT limitations.
If I'm over producing then that's 100% renewable generation they are getting so how can there be a problem with that.
It's not like the ESB will refuse this PV generation, they'll just refuse to pay for it, and of course they will still charge somebody for using it....go figure

You’ve misunderstood the mechanics of it.

The Premium FiT payment comes out of other taxpayers pockets, not ESB. It’s a guaranteed amount you get, not the market rate.

Patmwgs

KCross wrote: »

You’ve misunderstood the mechanics of it.

The Premium FiT payment comes out of other taxpayers pockets, not ESB. It’s a guaranteed amount you get, not the market rate.

If someone has 6kw installed before any grant scheme was offered, will they get full premium for all excess or full premium on 30% excess, just trying to figure out the migration of the microgen scheme.

graememk

Patmwgs wrote: »

If someone has 6kw installed before any grant scheme was offered, will they get full premium for all excess or full premium on 30% excess, just trying to figure out the migration of the microgen scheme.

In the proposal, the premium rate is for installs after the 30th June 2021.

The standard rate is for everyone else

Patmwgs

graememk wrote: »

In the proposal, the premium rate is for installs after the 30th June 2021.

The standard rate is for everyone else

I will miss my nine cent, it was very useful.

kabakuyu

This article in the Examiner mentions the 30% limit and a FIT of 8 cents.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-40234298.html

SD_DRACULA

30% makes sense for one of those farm installations but residential should be 100% to make any difference since most would be under 10kws anyway and a lot of self use.