{"id":33152,"date":"2019-09-03T13:48:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T03:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=33152"},"modified":"2019-09-04T09:55:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T23:25:20","slug":"feed-in-tariff-hot-water-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/feed-in-tariff-hot-water-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales From The Customer Frontline: How Rocco Was Burned By Feed-in Tariff\/Hot Water Rules, And Won"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Solar

Rocco was burned by rules saying he could not have a solar feed-in-tariff AND off-peak hot water.<\/p><\/div>\n

Updated with comment from United Energy: <\/strong>A tale brought to our attention by reader Rocco is a handy reminder customers and retailers need to read the fine print of their solar feed-in-tariff contracts – and also brought to our attention how complex wholesaler and retailer rules can get.<\/p>\n

Rocco first related his experience briefly in this comment<\/a> back in January, which we didn’t notice at the time.<\/p>\n

The article was a review of a hot water power diverter unit by Catch Power:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn October 2018 we installed a 4 kw solar system (in Melbourne) and was repeatedly told by AGL to leave the HWS on at night in order to take advantage of the reduced controlled load rates,\u201d Rocco wrote. \u201cIt was stipulated FIT would be $0.117 and controlled load $0.19. Hence no great saving in having the HWS run off the solar panels during the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever AGL failed to check that the distributor (United Energy) does not allow for FIT and controlled load (it is one or the other) and when the smart meter was reconfigured they even forgot to mention this to us. Consequently we have not knowingly paid full price of $0.29 for the HWS that continues to run at night without controlled load. The ongoing case has been referred to the Energy Ombudsman with AGL continuing to be extremely difficult!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat said I would assume a HWS dumb timer or even smarter diverter would be cost effective considering the FIT is $0.117 and there is no controlled load discount but rather a standard price of $0.29. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later, Rocco returned to post that with the intervention of the Energy Ombudsman he\u2019d been able to get the situation resolved and<\/i> get a Catch diverter from AGL – but we still felt it was worth finding out more about what went on.<\/p>\n

The Devil In The Detail<\/h2>\n

The pothole that tripped AGL and Rocco is in United Energy\u2019s pricing regulatory filing – the most recent is in this PDF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You have to scroll down to page 33 to find the crucial detail, and the ordinary customer probably wouldn\u2019t realise at first glance that the \u201cDedicated Circuit\u201d tariff is referring to off-peak hot water services – and means the statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tariff is not available to new customers with embedded generation or existing customers that install embedded generation\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

..might also escape their notice.<\/p>\n

So we went back to Rocco for more detail, and here\u2019s what he told us:<\/p>\n

He had started looking into a solar power installation back when AGL was still offering retail solar deals, and it was in consultation with AGL he decided to use solar energy for everything but the hot water service. The HWS would stay on the off-peak connection and solar electricity would handle everything else; with a feed-in tariff when there was excess power.<\/p>\n

AGL exited retail solar installations, so Rocco forged ahead on his own, choosing a 4kW solar power system via Solar Quotes.<\/p>\n

At that point, he asked AGL for \u201ccontract prices for the FiT, controlled load and standard rates\u201d.<\/p>\n

So far, so good – it was only later that the problem emerged:<\/p>\n

\u201cwe received our first electricity invoice and noticed the controlled load rates had disappeared. We initially approached AGL whom had no idea but then confirmed it was no longer available and to contact the wholesaler United Energy for additional information. It was here for the first time they confirmed the consumer could not have both the FiT and controlled load. Not happy!!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With the intervention of the Energy Ombudsman, Rocco persuaded AGL to provide the Catch Power diverter (which he read about here on Solar Quotes) as compensation for the error.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all good, but he\u2019s still unhappy with United Energy, which never explained why it excludes solar feed-in tariff deals from customers with off-peak hot water.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a question worth asking – after all, it was just a couple of weeks ago that SA Power Networks told a Clean Energy Council webinar<\/a> it\u2019s trying to change customer off-peak habits to reflect the new reality, that the biggest electricity surplus in today\u2019s world is in the middle of a springtime day.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve contacted United Energy about this, and will add any response to this post.<\/p>\n

Lack Of Transparency<\/h2>\n

Rocco\u2019s experience brought into sharp relief a clear lack of transparency in the wider industry – it\u2019s not easy to get through the opaque jargon of tariff documents to an easy \u201cyes\/no\u201d about which tariffs exclude each other.<\/p>\n

To read the United Energy \u201cLVDED\u201d Dedicated Circuit tariff, for example, you have to scroll back through the document to read the LVS1R and LVM1R tariffs.<\/p>\n

I also looked over tariff documents from Evo Energy (here<\/a>) and Endeavour Energy (here<\/a>), and in neither case is it easy for an outsider to work out whether or not off-peak tariffs exclude each other.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfair to pick on these three providers – United, Evo and Endeavour – but a full survey of wholesaler tariff documents would take weeks.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d be interested to hear what readers have to say about the exclusions – have you experienced it with other providers? Have you been given a good enough explanation for how the rules were made?<\/p>\n

Updated: United Energy’s Response<\/h2>\n

Yesterday afternoon, we received a comment from United Energy, which said: “Customers with a solar feed-in tariff are able to access our time-of-use tariff that provides off-peak rates for hot water systems. We would encourage customers to speak with their retailers about what the best option for them is.”<\/p>\n

So it would seem United Energy is saying Rocco’s problem stemmed from a retailer putting him on the wrong tariff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated with comment from United Energy: A tale brought to our attention by reader Rocco is a handy reminder customers and retailers need to read the fine print of their solar feed-in-tariff contracts – and also brought to our attention how complex wholesaler and retailer rules can get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":33155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-hot-water","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Rocco Was Burned By Solar Feed-in Tariff\/Hot Water Rules, And Won<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rocco was told after his solar power system was installed he could not have a feed in tariff and off peak hot water. 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