{"id":4389,"date":"2015-01-14T17:09:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T07:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=4389"},"modified":"2017-04-19T14:49:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T04:19:08","slug":"3-phase-solar-wars-menace-phantom-imports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/3-phase-solar-wars-menace-phantom-imports\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Phase Solar Wars : The Menace of Phantom Imports."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"soalr<\/a>

May the (electromotive<\/a>) force be with you!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m thinking of writing a screenplay. The movie’s name is “3-Phase Solar\u00a0Wars : The Phantom Imports”. Here’s the opening scene:<\/p>\n

“Quite soon in the future, in a suburb\u00a0not very\u00a0far away….<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is a period of civil war.\u00a0Solar owners, striking from over a million rooftops, have won their first victory\u00a0against the evil Electricity\u00a0Empire.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the battle, these plucky\u00a0rebel homeowners managed to get their electricity bills down so low that they are on the cusp of destroying an entire electricity retail industry.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But now\u00a0the Empire’s sinister agents\u00a0have a plan:<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

They’ve identified a weakness in hundreds of thousands of rebel bases that rely on a 3-phase supply.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you are a solar-rebel with 3-phase\u00a0then be afraid. The Empire has spotted a pile of \u00a0your\u00a0cash on the floor and have figured out how to legally take\u00a0it from you.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the scariest\u00a0part is this: \u00a0you will probably never understand the dark forces that cause your\u00a0bill to rise\u00a010, 20, 40% overnight.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You see it’s not a price rise and they haven’t hatched a plan to make you use more power.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rather they are going to deploy a\u00a0droid\u00a0from their work force, probably with the title “embedded systems engineer” to change a handful of lines\u00a0of computer code. Once this mission is complete they will engage one of their fluoro vest clad meter readers (aka Stormtroopers) to discreetly upload the new code to your 3-phase\u00a0solar meter.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You’ll never even know that the box on your wall that silently counts your solar exports and grid imports has now been subtly reprogrammed in the dark side’s\u00a0favour.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Far fetched vision of the near future? Maybe not. Here’s why…<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks before Christmas I got a call from a client who runs a national solar installation business. He had just read my\u00a0blog post on 3 phase power and solar<\/a>\u00a0and wanted to share his recent experience of connecting solar customers to 3 phase.<\/p>\n

He told me that for the first time he was starting to see 3 phase import export meters configured in a way that was seriously reducing solar owners’ payback whilst fattening the electricity retailers’ profits.<\/p>\n

How can this happen? Here’s how:<\/p>\n

Many homes in Australia have a 3 phase supply. Many 3 phase homes who have solar have a single, 1 phase inverter connected to one of the home’s phases (usually the blue one).<\/p>\n

This is a perfectly reasonable way to install solar. My personal solar system connects\u00a0to a single phase of the house’s 3 phase supply.<\/p>\n

The house’s 3 phases are then connected to a 3 phase solar import\/export meter. This meter calculates how much solar exports to the grid, and how much of the solar energy is being ‘self consumed’.<\/p>\n

For most homes self consuming solar energy saves about 35c per kWh because that is what it would cost to buy from the grid. Exporting solar energy is generally\u00a0worth only 8c per kWh.<\/p>\n

So obviously you want to maximise self consumption and minimize exports.<\/p>\n

How 3 phase meters usually calculate exports:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traditionally all 3 phase import\/export meters have calculated exports like this:<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Look at the total amount of energy being consumed on all 3 phases<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> Look at the solar being generated on the single ‘solar’ phase.<\/p>\n

Subtract (1) from (2) to calculate the exported energy.<\/p>\n

This is good for the homeowner. If the sun is shining and they are generating, say 3.5kW of power, but their appliances\u00a0are consuming\u00a01 kW on each of the\u00a03 phases, they are officially\u00a0exporting 0.5kW <\/strong>(3.5kW – 3kW) and importing zero\u00a0kW from the grid. So they are\u00a0earning<\/strong> about 4c per hour for their efforts. Not a lot, but better than paying for electricity!<\/p>\n

How 3 phase meters could be hacked to benefit\u00a0the retailers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s stay with the scenario above and consider what is actually happening to the electrons in the 3 wires.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0solar phase, we are generating 3.5kW but consuming 1kW. Therefore we are sending 2.5kW back to the grid on the solar phase.<\/p>\n

On the other 2 phases,\u00a0we are consuming (importing) 1kW per phase.<\/p>\n

So if the meter gets\u00a0reconfigured to only count exports on the solar phase, then the financial effect is this:<\/p>\n

The homeowner will be earning\u00a02.5 x 8c = \u00a020c per hour\u00a0for their exports. But will be paying 2 x 35c = 70c per hour for these imports. The net effect is a cost<\/strong> of 50c per hour to the homeowner instead of them earning \u00a04c per hour.<\/p>\n

Do you think the electricity retailer would prefer to pay out 4c per hour or earn 50c per hour from hundreds of thousands of 3 phase solar homes with a 3 phase supply?<\/p>\n

According to my contact, he’s tested some 3 phase meters and has discovered that some\u00a0are now being configured the latter way:\u00a0i.e to\u00a0calculate exports only on the solar phase, to benefit the electricity company at the expense of\u00a0the unknowing solar owner.<\/p>\n

To my knowledge, there is no standard or contractual basis to enforce how these meters should calculate the exports. The electricity companies that own them may well be legally able to change the software in the meters at their whim, as I’ve never seen it specified in a supply contract.<\/p>\n

Further, my contact told me that the electrician that first discovered this was forced to remove\u00a0his findings from an online forum because his job\/licence was threatened. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lord Vader himself made the threat.<\/p>\n

Maybe my opening sequence is not so far-fetched after all?<\/p>\n

What should a solar\u00a0buyer with 3 phase do to protect themselves from being charged for these ‘phantom’ imports of electricity?<\/p>\n

The safest option is to\u00a0get a 3 phase inverter. Unfortunately this will add approx $500-$800 to the price of a 5kW system<\/a> compared to using a single phase inverter.<\/p>\n

Or, if you don’t have any 3-phase appliances, you can stick with a single phase inverter but ask your electrician to connect as many daytime loads as possible to the solar phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I’m thinking of writing a screenplay. The movie’s name is “3-Phase Solar\u00a0Wars : The Phantom Imports”. Here’s the opening scene: “Quite soon in the future, in a suburb\u00a0not very\u00a0far away….   It is a period of civil war.\u00a0Solar owners, striking from over a million rooftops, have won their first victory\u00a0against the evil Electricity\u00a0Empire.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[48],"tags":[405,36,112,500],"class_list":["post-4389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-inverters","tag-3-phase","tag-australia","tag-buyers-guide","tag-solar-installation-2","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n3 Phase Solar Wars : The Menace of Phantom Imports. - 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