New Solar PV and issues with Maximum Export Capacity - help..

rickyottobcfc

We recently got 11 new Solar PV panels installed with capacity of 4.78 KVA and choose not to go with battery for now. However, when we signed up to Microgeneration with our electricity provider, BGE, they have applied a Maximum Export Capacity on our account of 4.4KW per day (limiting max they will pay us for surplus generation to c. 81.3 cents) which seems crazy and not what we expected or were advised by our installer.

Having been directed to ESB networks they mentioned that all new residential customers since May 2023 have either a 6 KW or 11 KW MEC applied dependent on whether a single or 3 phase unit.

Can I just check if others have experienced this or are most able to sell back an unlimited amount of surplus generated energy to their provider from their residential solar PV? Thanks

dclifford

Might be worth moving this to the renewable energies section of the forum. Probaly get more chance of more relevant viewers.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058343481/new-solar-pv-and-issues-with-maximum-export-capacity-help

Best bet is the renewables form alright but it depends...have you got a smart meter? if you do then you will be paid for what you export but there are limits and you cant go over the theoretical size of your system eg if you have 4.78 kWp of Solar PV then obvioulsy you cant be seen to be exporting somthing like 10kW...

If you dont have a smart meter then you will only be paid an estimated amount based on some formual, which more than likley will be less that you actually exported. That saying Im sure there has been some change in the rules and you now need a smart meter to get any FIT payments.

In the renewable form they will be all over this for you.

the_amazing_raisin

The MEC will be determined by the maximum current the inverter can supply back to the grid. This will be stated on the NC6 form the electrician sent into ESB Networks, so worth checking with them on that

Your math doesn't quite check out. You're limited to 4.4kW of instant power, but you're paid per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of exported energy

So if you system was generating 4.4kW for 1 hour, you would export 4.4kWh assuming you don't self consume any energy

At the BGE export rate of 18.5c/kWh, that's 81.4c per hour, not per day

Now you probably won't be producing maximum power for the whole day. To give you an idea, my 6kWp system generated 28.19kWh last Saturday which was pretty sunny. It never actually got to 6kW though, maxed out on sunshine at 5.5kW.

Plus there were several breaks where it dropped down to anywhere from 0.5kW to 2kWh whenever a cloud rolled over

rickyottobcfc

Thanks everyone - will move this to energy forum. We have smart meter and I expected that the limit was per hour as opposed to daily but BGE state it is a daily limit...

brianiac

Did you get further info on this? Ie is MEC the max per hour or the max per day that you can export?

the_amazing_raisin

It's instantaneous power, so per second

A MEC of 6kW means you can go up to 6kW at any particular time

You are paid for kilowatt hours, which is the product of kilowatts x hours generating

There's no daily export limit on kilowatt hours. Theoretically you can export 6kW for 24 hours and get 6*24=144kWh

Of course ESBN might have some questions about how you're generating solar power at night 😂

Cobaya

Same question here. I did a massive upgrade and I got just scared that BGE would not pay above the original MEC of 1.5kw.

I know my installer sent the new EC6 forms right when the panels were placed, but I have no visibility of progress from ESB or BGE, neither do I know if the MEC will ever change in the BGE account dashboard.

That said, BGE is getting my actual reports from ESB, and they clearly show the right new amounts. I was even in the perception that the smart meter blocked any export over 5kwh due to safety capacity from the grid, but I seem to be exporting over that on the best hours of the day.

I feel like I wont really know until BGE applies the microgeneration credit, but from this standpoint, if they dont pay it would only be a language technicality, because the export data is there.

Any feedback is welcome. Whats the point of a MEC anyway? Its not like it impacts BGE on any way.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122226684#Comment_122226684

So BGE can say whatever they want but they're just paying you for the export readings they're getting from ESBN

The story behind the MEC limit is a bit of a long one but the short version is that ESBN did a study a few years ago about what level of investment is needed to enable microgeneration

They concluded that the grid could safely handle 25A (roughly 5.25kW) per household, going above this was feasible but may require upgrades to the local grid

So the NC6 application form covers installations up to the microgeneration limit of 25A and doesn't require any particular testing by ESBN

To go above that level you need to engage the NC7 process, a few posters have gone through this process already and I think there's a thread on it. It does cost money, there's an application fee and you'll need to pay for any upgrades that are needed

ESBN operate on the basis that whoever requests the infrastructure upgrades pays for them

There's a way to check the status of your NC6 application online but I don't know the link. That would be my first port of call