topic Re: Solar smart meter installation time in Solar, Batteries & Electrification

Solar smart meter installation time

kev2108 — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 01:55:32 GMT

I had recently get my property solar installed and powered, and I was advised from the installer that I do not need to do anything rather than wait for apprx 2 weeks before the AGL guy comes for the smart meter installation (they would do all the neccessary paperworks, if any for such the meter installed on my behalf). Almost 2 weeks passed and heard nothing then I just rang AGL solar team and then been advised that the consumers need to contact their retailers for the smart meter arrangement themselves and also 27 business days which is the normal timeframe for installation since early this year 2018. Wondering if the above said is correct? Though I am rather new in solar arena, I just wanna make sure my investment on solar do a good job in terms of return on investment rather feeding the power back to the grid for nothing. Appreciate your advices. Thank you.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

jayden_AGL — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 03:40:08 GMT

Hey kev2108,

Welcome to the Community!

The information that you have been provided by AGL is correct. Under recent industry changes, customers do need to contact their retailers directly to request any necessary changes to their meter configuration. Once this has been completed, you will be making full use of your investment!

Cheers,

Jayden

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

MnM — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 02:51:27 GMT

What is AGL doing about delayed installation of the new solar meters?

I was sent my original text confirming that we would be installed within 27 business days on 5Feb. Multiple phone calls later and we still dont know when this is going to happen....

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

jayden_AGL — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 05:37:04 GMT

Hey MnM,

Thank you for your post!

I'm sorry to hear that you've been left out of the loop! If you can send me a private message containing your AGL account details we'll be happy to follow up on this for you.

Kind regards,

Jayden

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

gaskerry00 — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 08:19:41 GMT

Hi I feel for you. We r going through the same thing . We had solar installed in January and after calling daily oand being told a date but no one ever shows up we have now put it in the hands of the ombudsman the last time we spoke to Agl they said they would call back with an answer. We did get a call back and this is what they said!,

WE DONT HAVE AN ANSWER. I have never been so angry or frustrated with a company before. Good luck with yours

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

gaskerry00 — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 08:26:06 GMT

We have been waiting since January for our meter to be installed. We ring every day to be told a date but they never show. We ring again and again no one shows up. Last time speaking to AGL I asked for a definite answer on when we will have our solar actually working fir us and they said they would ring back. Actually this time they did ring back and wait for it The is answer was WE DONT HAVE AN ANSWER,,

we r retired and spent $5000to have solar installed and it’s sitting on our roof doing nothing. I expect some compensation for this outrageous way of being treated.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Mxmkrs1 — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 20:35:02 GMT

Hi Kev,

My advice would be to not hold your breath.

We live in Qld and are going through a similar situation at the moment, and the more i read the more i realise this is AGL's standard M.O

We had our solar installed in early January and are still waiting for our meter to be connected.

It took AGL almost a month after recieveing all required paperwork to send a 27 day notice via sms that the meter will be connected, now at the end of march i have been advised by an AGL staff member that it could be another month before Active Stream are able to connect the meter. From what i could find, Active Stream has been sold off by AGL so really have no control over what they do.

Its seems odd that AGL can't resolve my connection until just about the time my next billing period starts. Pretty con.venient for them.

At the end of the day being on Solar means less profit for AGL so i'm not surprised they're dragging their feet to get our connections resolved.

Good luck with it all, but as soon as i'm connected ill be switching energy providers.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

kev2108 — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 03:54:54 GMT

It has been a very unpleasant experience with AGL since I requested for a smart meter upgrade. Aftet a couple of calls, AGL finally sent a third party electrician to the property for "what so called smart meter" with Import- Export kWh to ensure every kWh sent back to the grid could be creditted for. However, I received an email from AGL Solar team a few days later after the installation that such "smart meter" was inappropriately installed and considered as the old version, then said a "smart digital" could have been installed/upgraded from that and asked me to wait for another 27 business days. Well, I did not expect AGL could send the job order soon given their time frame of 27 business days. And I had recently got a call from another third party for the second expected meter upgrade installation. Another third party electrician sent from AGL came to my property for installation just now but the job was aborted as he explained the meter currently sitting on the switchboard is not lined up with whatever AGL system for synchronization or sth and was reported back to AGL to fix up. Not sure how long more I wait till everything could be run as it should be expected. I also subcribed/installed to "Solar Command" for ease of monitoring my solar power system but once it was installed, I heard nothing from AGL on how to run the "Solar Command" and I had to ring them then advised to wait for an email instruction of how to register as a new log in of such Solar Command. At this point of time, I believe I have waisted time/effort in dealing with AGL and considered to switch to another retailer very soon. Hope you all wont experience all the issues mentioned above in the future when dealing with AGL regarding "net meter" upgrade.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

SylviaElse — Tue, 01 May 2018 12:31:11 GMT

It's not exactly as if the energy retailers have an incentive to get this done quickly. Until it's done, you're providing them with free exported power. If your system gives you the ability, you might want to reduce the export limit to zero until the meter is installed.

Edit: After I put some more thought into this, I realised that the retailer is not getting the benefit of the exported power because, until the meter is installed, there's no way of associating it with them. It remains unclear to me exactly who benefits financially from the unmetered exported power.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Mxmkrs1 — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 02:03:09 GMT

AGL have come back and told us that they will have someone here in mid april to carry out the work, just 3 days bfore my my next bill is due and as i suspected a full billing period before they would get it sorted.. AGL have stated in writing that they will offer some compensation to cover the lost income.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

dc1 — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:05:44 GMT

4 no shows by AGL later... am still waiting for these guys to honour a simple committment...to show up and do the work

@kev2108 wrote:
I had recently get my property solar installed and powered, and I was advised from the installer that I do not need to do anything rather than wait for apprx 2 weeks before the AGL guy comes for the smart meter installation (they would do all the neccessary paperworks, if any for such the meter installed on my behalf). Almost 2 weeks passed and heard nothing then I just rang AGL solar team and then been advised that the consumers need to contact their retailers for the smart meter arrangement themselves and also 27 business days which is the normal timeframe for installation since early this year 2018. Wondering if the above said is correct? Though I am rather new in solar arena, I just wanna make sure my investment on solar do a good job in terms of return on investment rather feeding the power back to the grid for nothing. Appreciate your advices. Thank you.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

dc1 — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:07:24 GMT

welcome to my world... 4th no-show by AGL yesterday... and the worse part is, they don't even have the courtesy to notify you ...

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

dc1 — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:08:30 GMT

same with me. it seems like AGL has put their fate into an outsourced company that doesn't bother with honouring committments. am going to contact the ombudsman as well! good tip.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Merrillie — Sun, 06 May 2018 08:42:08 GMT

Same issue here I received my initial SMS saying 27 business days on the 9th Feb. Waited patiently for that time period then began the chasing and wasted hours waiting on the phone and multiple emails.

Still waiting but hopefully getting close if they turn up on 15 May as currently sheduled.

That is over 3 months wait, really not good enough.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Katiecat — Thu, 31 May 2018 06:10:35 GMT

We are having similar issues with AGL. Something that just requires a computer input to configure by now taken 2 months. Every time I call up to check, there is another hurdle or excuse. We are never contacted about these issues and written communication is near impossible to initiate. Not all customer care personnel have the same knowledge, most are actively trying to get rid of you as fast as possible. nobody says hello or how are you, and nobody goes out of their way to sort out issues. They just don't care, as they are all cogs in a very slow running machine. I was told I could get a "high-level escalation" if I did not complain to the Ombudsman. That was an offer I did not accept. I am collecting info to publicize how long and how much effort it takes me to get a solar connection.

We already have a meter, but they decided to plan an installation first and so it went on and on and on. I feel for you all and urge you to lodge complaints. We need a Royal Commission into energy resellers.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

SylviaElse — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 01:39:56 GMT

AGL should note the provisions of the Australian Consumer Law relating to misleading and deceptive conduct. Section 4 says

Misleading representations with respect to future matters

(1) If:

(a) a person makes a representation with respect to any future matter (including the doing of, or the refusing to do, any act); and

(b) the person does not have reasonable grounds for making the representation;

the representation is taken, for the purposes of this Schedule, to be misleading.

So being slow to act is one thing, but to make repeated representations that a meter will be installed within a certain timeframe, only to fail to honour that representation, is likely to be considered misleading and deceptive conduct. Since people may consider those representations when deciding whether to move to a different retailer, the misleading and deceptive conduct has financial consequences. In theory a person could sue AGL to recover their lost income from solar generation.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Chris24 — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 13:39:10 GMT

In NSW another contractor instals meter and has to get meter from yet another provider! The solar company said they would do everything re organising for meter etc, yet I found,I had to contact agl myself. Waiting for order to be acknowledged, even though solar provider contacted Ausgrid in December! Solar already installed on roof. Seriously, glad I contacted to follow through! Now, the waiting ............

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Chris24 — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:13:01 GMT

Hi gaskerry00

Im new here, feel for u. In nsw

Found I had to contact agl, then the meter ppl separately (different contractors). The meterguy has to contact and pick up meter company (diffetent contractor) to pick up meter, get approval from agl before proceeding. The lovely guy from plusES escalated job for me after I told him my dilemma. Solar privider cobtacted Ausgrid before Christmas) I had meter installed only days later. one has to advocate for themselves. If I hadnt done this and followed through, I would still be waiting for my meter to be installed. Also asked for nett meter.

Ive found electrical provider inaccurate with readings (been recording kw fed into grid) so need to contact during the week to sort out - not impressed.

Good luck

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

nissy — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:41:13 GMT

Hi I also am currently having the same issues. I have had my solar panels insltalled on 26th January . I contacted AGL to request a smart meter be installed as required by my solar panel installer. He is not the one to do this he told me AGL as my provider must provide it. I contacted AGL and was told it will take up to 28 business days . I heard nothing from AGL. After the 28days. I made up to 4 phone calls to AGL as they then tried to tell me I need to get my installer to provide the meter . They have now said I will need to wait yet another 21 days for this to be installed that is if it actually gets installed .

So I have had solar panels on now since 26th January and am unable to utilise them.

Very unhappy with AGL.

Re: Solar smart meter installation time

Merrillie — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 21:06:48 GMT

When you do finally get it installed make sure you swap your plan to the solar savers plan where you get 20 cents back for kWh fed into the grid. That makes a huge difference. We have a 5kw inverter and 20 panels and our last bill was $76 instead of somewhere between $450 and $750.