FIT Announcement expected tomorrow (Thursday)

[Earthstore]

Ted, you are right, and it is already happening with larger systems.

Here is my view on renewables, for what it is worth;
The Government do not want them at all, why? because they work, and what use is it to them when a large part of the population are producing their own energy, for free.
How do they tax that? How do the large energy companies earn from that?
How do the large investers in these companies earn from that? (remember most of these are foreign owned)

The whole political side to renewables stinks, it really is showing that they are in it for themselves and their pals.

It is all over the news today about double dip recession, how bad figures are etc etc, they have the chance to make a little difference here with what was a growth industry, but they choose to slowly destroy it.

I am trying hard to think of something else to do, so I can walk away completely,
Rant over for now...

 

[Worcester]

Export costs on system over 30kWp (deemed up to that point) are quite high.

There is an set up cost (admin) and an ongoing charge to collect the data - it is nearly always done using a 1/2hourly meter, (I have seen it done any other way yet) so they charge between £400 and £800 / year for metering. You then have the choice of accepting the FIT rate for export or selling it to the highest bidder, effectively the 3.2p is a floor level.

Net effect you need to export at least 20,000 kWh to make it worthwhile. On PV systems almost all of our sites use all the elctricity they produce so they've opted out of bothering to meter it and gving up the export income - confuses the hell out of some fit providers when then do that :8:

Of course a 50kWp Wind turbine it would make sense to export (you get bewteen 2 and 4 x the kWh output than you do from solar of the same size, installed price goes with it!)

I reckon that people like Good Energy will make you an offer, of course by then with the GreenDeal and Smart meters, we'll all have nice warm, energy efficient homes with export metering included censored: gues what Smart metering program doesnlt include measuring export as a standard requirement..)

 

[Earthstore]

This is just a thought.
Why do you have to use their metering, what is to stop you from installing an OFGEM approved meter which you own and using that for export, I am aware of the varying charges made by the different energy companies for export.

This would be no different from your generation meter, something that all PV systems have.

It is simple, you just give them a reading, the same as you do for generation and they pay you, probably best to put a seal in it, something that most companies miss on generation meters.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

 

[Gavin A]

it needs an MPAN number, and the DNO will only issue an MPAN number to an actual electricity company.

I was in the middle of asking good energy if they'd arrange for an MPAN for a meter that we installed, given that we work with Orsis anyway, and Good Energy use their metering services as well... got interrupted by more urgent stuff, will have to chase that up.

 

[Worcester]

For systems of around 4kWp, usual install price for an export meter is around £80, so you still need to calulate your ROI.

When you do a large system (>10kWp) the DNO often asks if an export MPAN is going to be needed.

The purchasers of the export then specifices the metering requirements (same as when you import...)

We regularly install an extra meter for the customers own purposes to monitor export (especially where the landlord is charging a reduced rate for the power to their tenant on industrial buildings), even on the big systems a three phase meter isn't expensive in the scale of things, then after a few months instead for going for export metering and payments, they ususally ask for an EMMA

 

[TedM]

Here's my summary of the changes.

DECC have released the results of their latest PV Feed-in Tariff consultation (2A) which will introduce new lower rates for installations from 1st August 2012. The cuts expected to have applied from 1st July will not be implemented.


Table 1 – new PV feed-in tariffs from 1st August 2012


The main changes are:

• Tariffs for solar pv installations to be reduced from 1 August with the current 21p rate for systems up to 4kW to reduce to 16p per kWh
• Tariffs for larger installations are also reduced with most cuts lower than proposed in February.
• Reductions to apply to new installations from 1 August, instead of 1 July as proposed, due to lower than predicted uptake since 1 April.
• Multi installation tariff (25 or more sites) increased from 80% to 90% of standard tariff
• Tariff degression will be controlled by the level of installs in previous quarters
• Increase in export tariff from 3.2p to 4.5p/kWh – but only for new installations from 1st August
• RPI index-linking of generation tariffs to be retained
• Lifetime reduced from 25 to 20 years for new solar installations from 1st August
• Tariff for installations which do not meet the energy efficiency requirements (EPC ‘D’ or better) will be the same as tariffs for standalone installations – present 9p will reduce to 7.1p from 1st August

The new degression mechanism requires a little further explanation.


It will come into force from 1st August but will only start to affect tariffs for new installations from 1st November 2012 with subsequent degressions every three months thereafter (i.e. 1 February, 1 May, 1 August, 1 November).

Degression will take place on these fixed dates but the amount of degression will depend on the level of deployment in previous quarters.


Tariffs will be published by OFGEM at least two months before the degression date, and will be based on level of deployment in the previous three-month period. For example, the tariffs for PV installations in February–April 2013 will be announced by the end of November 2012, and will be determined by PV deployment in August–October 2012. Potential generators will therefore have at least two months notice of any tariff changes, and up to five months notice if they install at the end of a three-month period.


The degression mechanism will operate across 3 separate system size bands completely independently. These will be: 0 – 10kW, 10 – 50kW and 50kW to 5MW.


This means tariffs can change at different rates for different installation sizes, with the constraint that the tariffs for larger installations cannot be higher than the tariffs for smaller installations – i.e. the tariffs for the larger installations will be pegged to those for smaller installations in this case.


DECC have decided to initially set the baseline degression rate at 3.5% for each three month period, which is equivalent to a 13.3% reduction on an annual basis. There will be an under-deployment mechanism which allows degression to be skipped in the event that deployment is lower than a specified floor threshold. Degression can only be skipped for two successive degressions (i.e. 6 months), so there will be an absolute minimum of 3.5% degression every 9 months.


Conversley if uptake is much higher than expected the baseline degression rate (initially 3.5%) will be doubled each time deployment exceeds a specified threshold. This will be set to a maximum of 28% at a single degression.

DECC have set deployment thresholds based on their predictions of cost reductions and consequent levels of uptake.


These thresholds are:

Table 2 – Deployment thresholds and degression of generation tariffs


Taking the 0 – 10kW band as an example:
- if there is less than 100 MW of 0-10kW systems installed in the relevant 3 month period there will be no degression – 0%
- if deployment is between 100 and 200 MW in the 3 month period then degression will be 3.5%
- if deployment is between 200 and 250 MW in the 3 month period then degression will be 7%
- if deployment is between 250 and 300 MW in the 3 month period then degression will be 14%
- if deployment in this band is over 300 MW in the relevant 3 month period then degression will be 28%


As can be seen the deployment thresholds are slightly lower for the higher systems size bands.


Deployment statistics will be tracked via the MCS database (for systems up to 50kW) and from OFGEM’s database for larger systems that are accredited via ROO-FIT. As the MCS database only records DNC then this will be used for <50kW systems. But as TIC is recorded in the OFGEM database then that figure will be used for >50kW systems.

These statistics will cover both new installations and extensions to existing systems that are registered in each relevant 3 month period. DECC will publish these statistics on their website on a monthly basis starting on 24th July 2012.


This increase in the frequency of tariff changes will have a major effect on larger commercial and community projects that have longer lead times due to the need to arrange finance and planning permission. To address this DECC have consulted on changes that would allow OFGEM to make conditional offers to such projects based on a pre-application process that would allow these projects to ‘lock-in’ to tariffs from a specific date prior to actual installation and commissioning. The details are not finalised yet and more information on this aspect should be published by DECC during the summer.

Preliminary accreditation will affect the manner in which the statistics are used in threshold degression monitoring, for example.


DECC’s response to the consultation on other non-PV aspects of the Feed-in Tariff scheme (2B) will also be published over the summer.


Full details from DECC

 

[SolarCity]

Great round-up. Thanks Ted.

 

[TedM]

For anyone struggling to get to grips with the new Feed-in Tariff degression mechanism I’ve put together a simple calendar to show how it works.

You can download a pdf copy and print it off, stick it on your wall and keep it up-dated as new tariffs are announced.

I’ve tried to keep it simple and I hope it is self-explanatory.

This version just covers the 0-10 kW tariff bands. If anyone desperately needs the larger tariff bands as well then let me know and I can draw something up.



http://www.caerdelyn.co.uk/blogg/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Degression-Calendar.pdf

 

[Gavin A]

nice one ted.

I think I'm going to knock up an alternative version for our allowable holiday periods for our staff, as this schedule amounts to 2 months on, 1 month off for our installation teams from what I can see.

 

[moggy1968]

2 months on would be nice!

 

[SRE]

nice one ted.

I think I'm going to knock up an alternative version for our allowable holiday periods for our staff, as this schedule amounts to 2 months on, 1 month off for our installation teams from what I can see.

I'm giving up on holidays, Barking always seems to cock it up! Had booked to go away for 3 days 1st, 2nd & 3rd July because I KNEW THAT THE DEADLINE WOULD BE HAVE PASSED AND THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY WORK!!!!!!

Still waiting to go to San Francisco - September this year, whatever happens!

 

[finchy]

SRE - Your San Franciso holiday is the most anticpated holiday ever... Can I come !

Ted the Oracle - thanks as ever !

 

[Dan]

Don't mind me while I bump some threads in the solar PV forum. If they're not current or applicable topics, just ignore the threads; they'll drop off the page. If they are, feel free to chip in and chat solar stuff in the solar panels forum.