Smart Meters and Solar PV

[Dave-geo]

Hi All
I have checked previous threads which are now out of date and have not come up with a definitive answer so I hope you dont mind me starting a new thread about this.
My FIT is paid by SWALEC and my electricity is supplied by Eon. Eon now want to fit a smart meter but I am concerned that it could effect my deemed usage of 50% which I do not want as I have an Immersun fitted.
Eon have confirmed the following by email
[FONT=&amp]"This e-mail is just to reassure you the SMART meters and micro-generation technology are separate entities and the SMART meter will not send information such as how much electricity your solar panels have generated to ourselves."
Do you think this would be sufficient to cover myself against this problem and is there any up to date information regarding smart meters and solar PV.
Any help would be appreciated.
Dave
[/FONT]

 

[whinmoor]

Are you being forced to accept the SMART meter or is it optional?

 

[Dave-geo]

Are you being forced to accept the SMART meter or is it optional?

Thanks for your reply.
It doesn't appear that I have to accept it but I would be quite happy to as long as I am covered as far as the solar is concerned.
If there is any doubt then I will say no and believe I have the right to do that.
I have a feeling that it will not work anyway as they have said it uses a SIM card and I live in an area of poor mobile coverage and the meter is located in my concrete basement!

 

[whinmoor]

Why not politely decline until it's made compulsory? Save yourself some hassle. There's no point in being a guinea pig for something that might not work!

 

[j12m21]

My understanding is that smart meters are for your Import electricity to provide an exact reading on how much electricity you are using.
For them to monitor your export this would need to be agreed with the electricity company and monitored with an export meter (which you wouldn't do for small scale systems due to cost) rather than assuming the 50%.

Smart meters will help you use your solar more efficiently as you can use the in-home display which tells you how much you're using live and cross reference it with your generation if you have online monitoring.
ie. if you're generating 3kW from your panels and your smart meter tells says you're using 2.5kWs in the home, you know you're not spending money on the grid!

 

[TedM]

Some, not all, Smart Meters can measure export as well as import. The tech spec is still evolving and not all meter manufacturers are up to date and not all meter installers are putting in the latest versions of the meters. But the export function of the meter would have to be registered by the customer's FiT supplier for it to affect FiT payments.

Few electricity suppliers seem to have got their heads around this at present.

Personally I won't be having a Smart Meter until I am satisfied that the (again, still evolving) data security standards are solid.