Interresting change in policy.

CoJ is embarking on converting households with PV on prepaid to postpaid meters it seems

Link to news article

This was started last year, which was only related to non-vending prepaid meters, looking at the original document on CoJ website.

Original CoJ notice

Seems like they added PV households in the mix now to more accurately monitor imports and exports.

Yep. Looks like happy days are over.

I think City Power will argue that this is no change. If you had solar then you're supposed to register. If you register then actually you are supposed to be moved to a TOU tariff. (The letter I got when I registered says "you will be moved to", not "you must move" so I say that the City has to do stuff, not me.)

So now that I type that I see the problem. We are not being moved to a TOU tariff (which has higher fixed fees and we have to pay for the meter) but to the conventional post paid tariff.

So do CP have regulations on their side or are they acting capriciously? And who has the money to take a test case to court?

I have a nice letter from City Power that says I will be moved to a TOU tariff. I can stamp my foot and say "no! You said you will move me to a TOU tariff. This is not what you are supposed to do and I can show you saying that directly to me."

But we need to be careful what we ask for. I may be financially worse off if they move me to that tariff as fixed costs are higher, and the City does not allow you to claim credit for more units than you consume. So I can claim credit for only a small amount.

Eish.

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Bobster.

I have made some enquiries. It seems that the regulations are on CP's side here. Remembering that by-laws stipulate that domestic PV installations are supposed to be registered, and the City did announce that and gave householders time to register retrospectively.

Following on from that, is this: “All residential customers who would be willing to invest in embedded generation with the purpose of supplementing their electricity supply from City Power, will have to be on a time-of-use conventional tariff structure. If they are currently on a prepaid structure, they will be required to migrate to the time-of-use conventional tariff structure."

If doesn't even get into whether or not you plan to export.

Technical underpinnings are that any system capable of interaction with the grid must have a bi-directional meter. COJ's pre-paid meters are not bi-directional.

Salt in the wounds: Conversion to the appropriate type of meter is at the homeowner's expense.

It also seems that the City's hand was forced by rumours being spread on social media that they would disconnect all properties that had solar. In having to say that that is not their position, they had to make the actual position clear.

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Bobster.
Spelling mistakes

3 hours ago, Bobster. said:

(The letter I got when I registered says "you will be moved to", not "you must move" so I say that the City has to do stuff, not me.)

Bah! Me and my memory. The exact wording is "in the event this is a residential service connection, your tariff will now be based on our NERSA approved, post-paid conventional residential Time of Use (TOU) tariff". Because of the wording I chose to interpret it as they need to take action, not me: something will happen, not I have to do something. I have been audited since my conversion, and I've not hidden anything from the City. No action was taken, so I didn't do anything.