Metre reading miss match

[Rusty_Nuts]

As I have a high quality digital inverter I have the ability to view all output and feed in and production values of my solar system.

However these figures don't match the smart metre and my bills are way too excessive.

How can I get my metre inspected for correct installation and calibration

[-Nam- · Accepted solution]

Hi Rusty_Nuts! 

Welcome to AGL Community! 

The information you receive on your solar inverter will be the information your system has generated. The information we receive and display on your AGL My Account here, is the amount of power that you've had to import from the grid and the excess solar power you've exported. 

Any power that your solar system generates will go to power your property first and any excess of solar power will be exported back into the grid. You'll see this figure on your bill as your solar feed in tariff. 

Kind regards, 

-Nam-

[Rusty_Nuts]

My frronius inverter displays power generation from both strings individually and as a whole. IT ALSO displays power output to the smart meter.

The output figures from the inverter don't correspond with the input figures on the smart meter.

I have had a complete solar system health check and the inverter had no issue's

[-Steve-]

Hi Rusty_Nuts,

We will need to discuss this one further with you, please reach out to the Resolutions Team via messenger in My Account or the AGL App (select account, then support) they will be able to review this with you.

Kind Regards,

Steven

[NeilC]

Hi Rusty_Nuts,

Your solar panels convert DC to AC via your Inverter.

The inverter supplies 240 Volts back to your meter.

Your meter only registers the amount of energy (in Kw) that you supply to the grid (this is your feed-in).

The difference that you are seeing is the amount of energy you supplied to your meter (the output of your inverter) minus the power that your house consumed during this time.

So if you are producing 5kw and using 3kw your FEED-IN is only 2Kw.

Hope this makes sense.

If you like this reply, please click the LIKE button.

Cheers

Neil

[AprilReyes]

---

@-Nam- wrote:

Hi McDVOICE

Welcome to AGL Community! 

The information you receive on your solar inverter will be the information your system has generated. The information we receive and display on your AGL My Account here, is the amount of power that you've had to import from the grid and the excess solar power you've exported. 

Any power that your solar system generates will go to power your property first and any excess of solar power will be exported back into the grid. You'll see this figure on your bill as your solar feed in tariff. 

Kind regards, 

-Nam-

---

Thank you for posting something like this

[MulgaBill]

Wish to add my 2 cents worth on this topic of mismatch with readings.

As a newby to Solar am monitoring and comparing readings from the inverter with AGL's figures (taken from the smart meter).

Over the last 2 months the Export data (the Solar energy sold back into the Grid) matches closely (within 1%) however, the Import data (The Energy bought from the Grid) differs greatly (by >30%). Can anyone please explain why the huge difference between readings.?

[NeilC]

Hi MulgaBill,

The amount of energy you purchase is measured by the meter and has nothing to do with your solar inverter.

Your meter only reads outgoing energy from your Solar panels and incoming energy that your house consumes.

For clarification, energy that we are talking about is known as Kilowatts (abbreviation Kw).

For you to have a figure that states your EXPORT is the same as the OUTPUT from your inverter means that your house consumes NONE OF THE POWER that you generate from your solar panels.

Now your meter reads the power that you import and will change as you consume power in the house, you TURNED ON a fridge, freezer, AC, kettle or light etc.

You may have noticed I said TURNED ON, this is because if you do not consume any power from your solar panels then you are not using any power in the house.

Therefore you must get home and turn on all your devices hence your miss-match of readings.

Now having said this I don't believe that you turn off all your devices when you leave the house.

Your solar panels produce Kw's, your house consumes as much of those Kw's it can before allowing it to ESCAPE your house as EXPORT Kw.

Here is the DATA for my house yesterday. 

Date	Peak	Exported	Solar Gen	Used
27-Apr-20	3.974	20.192	27.50	7.31

           My solar panels produced  27.5 Kw.

           My house consumed 7.31 kw of that solar power (We had a roast and made cakes)

           My house exported  20.192 Kw to the grid (We had a sunny part and then rain)

           My house used 3.974 Kw for the day (about normal for our nighttime use)

So yesterday cost me

          $0.91 for supply charges

          $1.63 for electricity supplied

          A total expense of $2.54

          A credit of  $4.04 for my export

         Total cost for the day was $1.50 credit to my account.

So lets have a look at a bad day

Date	Peak	Exported	Solar Gen	Used
23-Apr-20	5.333	1.270	3.40	2.13

On the 23 Apr 20

We had 10.8 mm that day starting about Midday.

I was home by myself, partner was at work during the day

Consumed $2.20 of power plus $0.91 (supply charge) = $3.11

Exported 1.270 Kw                                                        = $0.25

Cost per Day                                                                  = $2.86

So in four days I went from making $1.50 to having to pay $2.86

If you look at your MyAccount from the web you will see the data that AGL has for your account on a day to day basis.

Reading your Smart Meter Manually will never confirm with the AGL MyAccount figures as they are the figures at MIDNIGHT EST each day. (EST stands for Eastern Standard Time)

You can only confirm these figures by reading your meter at MIDNIGHT EST.

The figures I am quoting above are from my meter data supplied electronically from my meter by either AGL or my electricity supplier.

Let me assure you (I am not an AGL Employee) that I check my account on a regular basis and will be the first to jump at AGL should they get their figures wrong in either supply or demand charges.

I will let you into a secret though, if you  live in SA, I do not have to pay as much as I expect because they do not understand about Daylight savings and the time difference in SA.

I save on average about $0.72 cents on my quarterly bill.

Cheers Neil

[MulgaBill]

Hi Neil,

Thank you for your prompt and detailed response. I may not have described my situation clearly as your response does not help resolve my understanding of the situation.

Appreciate that AGL only report the data received from my smart meter which reads outgoing (export) energy from the Solar panels and incoming (import) energy that my house consumes.

Am somewhat surprised that AGL only supply import & export data given that a 3rd party provider (SolarEdge Monitoring platform) provides all the data necessary to give me a full picture of my Total Solar production, including import and export data plus consumption. Apparently SolarEdge can do this by accessing the data from my Inverter, as AGL do not provide/share the smart meter data to SolarEdge.

One cannot help but compare AGL's import and export figures with SolarEdge's figures.

So, my question is:

When comparing the two sets of import and export data. The import figures vary significantly whereas the export figures effectively match. How can these two sets of figures be so different?

Hopefully the summary below highlights the issue?

AGL Figures - April 2020

Exported to Grid         377.40Kwh

Imported from Grid    245.36Kwh

SolarEdge Figures – April 2020

Exported to Grid         379.21Kwh

Imported from Grid    174.52Kwh

Total Production         493.96Kwh

Self Consumption       114.75Kwh    

How can I trust the AGL figures when such a major discrepancy occurs in their import figures?

Thanks in advance.

MB

[NeilC]

Mulga,

Ah, you ponder over unknown figures.

If you want to send me a Private Message ( @NeilC ) using the Mail Icon on the top right hand side. I will give you an email address so that you can send me a copy of your data from your My Usage page (that you can download).

I can analyse that in about two minutes and send back a SpreadSheet report of your house usage and feed-in from your meter.

Now I am not familiar with your inverter but having a quick check of their site I can see that they do not connect to your meter (nor are they allowed to) but looks like that they have an inductive coupling  on your main power lead somewhere.

Now you ask how can you trust the figures.

What are the correct figures, you are assuming that your SolarEdge figures are correct and that a Meter registered by AEMO is incorrect.

Now AGL does not do the metering, your Calibrated Meter reads the data and then sends it via wireless technology so your Supplier and Retailer to use.

Now I suggest that you find the MANUAL for your electricity meter and work out how to read the hidden information that it can supply.

I can at any time, push a couple of buttons and read either my output to the grid or my usage from the grid on my smart meter. (It is not possible to export and import at the same time)

I can tell you that I have tested my meter by turning off all the power in my house (less the solar panels) and checking the power to the grid. It nearly matches the output of my panels perfectly.

You are making false assumptions on unknown data. You can get your meter tested if you believe that it is incorrect, in SA I believe the figure runs to about $600 for the testing. If your meter turns out to be faulty you do not have to PAY......

As I said above PM me and I will do a spread sheet for you on your data if you want.

Cheers

Neil