Is it fraud? New Controlled Load using your solar

[Malster]

So recently anyone with a Controlled Load (CL1 or CL2) service was advised that they were changing the timings to move some of the CL during the day when solar is abundant.  Makes logical and environmental sense.

What they failed to tell us is that the CL will be using your own solar, but they will still charge you full-rate for your CL service.

In my case, where my HWS dissipates approx 4800kW I can observe the following:

Solar production :~3kW

Approx 500W used by house

Leaves 2.5kW exported.

CL activates for 10 min (11:00am)

Now importing 2.4kW 

Thus i am only drawing down 2.4kW from the grid..

Actual grid consumption for that 10min:

2400 / (60min/10) = 400Wh

What did my raw data from smart meter say?  931Wh for CL usage.

So I got billed for all the CL1 usage, even though it came from my own solar.

If you have your own monitoring as I do (2 independent systems), you might want to check what is happening with your CL service.

[Malster]

Still waiting for AGL.. What a joke !

@SYED_AGL  ??

[Wisha]

I have sent this link to EWOSA.

Please do the same (or your states equivalent Ombudsman), so they arent just getting it from me.

I am allegedly the first, and only person to ever have reported this.

Takes literally less than 5 minutes

[SYED_AGL]

Hi @Malster,

Thanks for your patience while we looked into this for you.

We’ve completed our checks and can confirm that your Controlled Load (CL) line does not impact your solar generation. These are two separate circuits passing through the same meter, and a change in CL timing (e.g. from night to day) does not affect your general electricity usage or solar consumption.

As per our investigation, no faults or data discrepancies have been identified.

If you'd still like to explore this further, we can arrange a Special Read for you. Please note, however, that if no fault is found during this process, a service fee may apply.

Should you wish to proceed, feel free to give us a call on 13 12 45 and ask to speak with our Resolutions Team, who can assist you with raising the Special Read.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions or concerns.

SYED 

[Wisha]

While I'm not the user Maister, I can give my 2 cents on this...as I have been through what you propose.

Enerven (metering) came out and opened my meter. He showed me the circuits going to CL and the Main.
The solar export is fed via the mains and metered as a + or - depending on which way the electrons are heading.

However, the meter has no way to meter solar export when CL is in use during the day. If the CL meter is energised, the export side does not function.

This gets even more confusing for the meter (Atlas 7A) if you use the Boost function (hold a green button for 3 seconds).

The Enerven rep said the only way for it to work is for the Grid supplier (SAPN) to change the 'back end' so retailers can see the export. They had no idea if that is even possible. So I spoke to SAPN.

SAPN said they have no interest in changing their back end software and said it's a metering issue between metering and the retailers. SAPN alledge that if they still controlled metering (they are clearly disgruntled from having metering taken off them), they would look at a new meter roll out to cater for CL being activated during the day (Solarsponge). But in its current state, most meters are not set up to meter solar sponge activity.

The retailers say they have no control over metering or grid supply.

In summary, I had both SAPN and Enerven out. Waste of everyones time. No resolution. I wasn't charged anything, but the problem still exists.

You (AGL) can help us all by explaining how these scenarios should play out in terms of how we are billed:
Assume for simplicity all scenarios are exactly 1 hr, and let's calling all pricing simply 'units'. ie 1 solar export unit,1 CL unit, 1 Mains unit.

Scenario 1 -5kw solar being generated, 3kw CL being used by Hotwater, 3Kw being used by home A/C.
Scenario 2 - As above, except the "boost' button is activated on the Atlas 7A smart meter,

[Malster]

Syed,

  But you haven't looked into it according to your staffer that called me yesterday.  She said the issue hasn't been looked at by technical or engineering and also admitted they had not called me.  When I asked what the ticket number you gave me was for, as I thought that was your ticket number with Endeavour, she wanted to shut down the call down and dismiss me..   Could I please get the recording from the call yesterday.
    
I am so surprised that you don't want to look at this, because not only are you incorrectly billing us for CL1 usage, you are paying FIT when there is no export, so I thought you would at least want to check out that issue, otherwise you are sanctioning revenue leakage.

As for a new read of my meter, what's the point, you are only reading the same faulty data..  Its not going to change until the firmware in the meter is changed.   Like I said right at the beginning, to be honest, I don't care about the $ as is not that much, its like 50c here and there, but the fact you are billing potentially 000's of customers wrongly and paying $000's of FIT for no supply is pretty poor.  You can't blame Endeavour for your billing errors, you can blame them for faulty process, and you should be our advocate in getting that resolved.

Look at the below diagram and I'll keep the figures simple for your tech folk..


Assume the following,
4kW HWS on CL1 on for 1 hour
3kW Solar input steady state for 1 hours
1kW General Usage stead for 1 hours

According to you and your caller yesterday...
I should have 4 kW draw from grid (Due to CL1) on some magical non-existent cable from the street,
I should have 2kW export (as 3kWSolar - 1kWGeneral = 2kWexcess to export). 
Your billing is (from your words and your raw data) billing us 4kW usage on CL1 and paying 2kW export.  

However that is not the case..
Reality is 4kWCL1 + 1kWGeneral) = 5kWGrid load - 3kWSol = Grid draw of 2kW. 
So you should be only billing us 2kW of CL as that is all we are taking from the grid.   I have the data to prove this is happening...  A real life example below...

 

Import from grid (yellow line) 0kW as solar is providing house needs, solar is approx 3kW.   CL1 turns on at 12:50 and now Grid import is approx 2.6Kw.  So now total household usage (CL1 and General) is approx 5.3kW, so if we do the math...   5.3kWTotalUsage(inc CL1) -  2.8kWFrom Solar = 2.5kW from Grid.   Exactly what the electrons show us.


If you look at the meter diagram above, it is so clear as to why and how.

[SYED_AGL]

Hi @Wisha 

Thanks for reaching out again — I understand how frustrating this situation must be.

Could you please send us your account details via private message? That way, we can escalate the issue to our dedicated team for a closer look.

I've already escalated @Malster  inquiry to the same team as well. A couple of different teams will likely need to be involved to investigate why this is happening, but we’re hopeful it will be resolved soon.

Thanks for your patience, and we’ll keep you updated as things progress.

SYED 

[Malster]

Someone is deleting posts now with the relevant proof this is occurring it seems just as Ombudsman are looking at it...  

[SYED_AGL]

Hi @Malster 

Thanks for reaching out again.

I want to assure you that no one is deleting your content. Your inquiry has already been forwarded to the HWS team, and they’re currently reviewing it to determine whether the issue you’re experiencing is caused in the way you described, or if there might be another underlying reason.

We understand this has been frustrating, and we appreciate your patience while the team investigates. As the matter was recently raised again, we kindly ask for a bit more time for the team to complete their review and provide an outcome.

Thanks again for your understanding, and we’ll keep you updated as soon as we hear back.

SYED 

[Wisha]

Time to screenshot everything!

Maybe take it to a local MP / send it to a media outlet etc.

Flick the link to the OTR Office of the Technical Regulator (or equivalent in your state).

This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain privileged information or confidential information or both. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender.

[NeilC]

@Wisha @Malster @Lester @SYED_AGL,

Wisha,

You do realise that ANYONE in the world can see your posts.

For the rest of you I would love to see your actual meter data rather than your un-calibrated  graphs from your solar inverter.

As Wisha and Malster seem to be in SA, do you know you can get your 5min (or 30min) data from SA Power Networks.

I have a CTL Load but do not use it as I have a Heat Pump Hot water service that I got for free (including installation) from the SA Government and that has a built in clock that you can use to set start / end times for usage.

Your data from SAPN is supplied in NEM12 format which can easily be read.

Now I have offered to decode these files for you (I have programs that I wrote when I first got my smart meter and have updated them as AGL / SAPN change their formats).

DATE	NMI	TYPE	D/Total	00:00>01:00	06:00>10:00	15:00>00:00	10:00>15:00	01:00>06:00
20250626	E1	General	4.264	0.130	0.295	2.880	0.052	0.907
20250627	E1	General	4.474	0.251	0.491	2.405	0.116	1.211
20250628	E1	General	4.417	0.233	0.419	2.019	0.486	1.260
20250629	E1	General	5.536	0.202	0.404	3.712	0.021	1.197
20250630	E1	General	3.989	0.247	0.276	2.323	0.057	1.086
20250701	E1	General	4.673	0.267	0.476	2.023	0.793	1.114
20250702	E1	General	4.048	0.247	0.354	2.052	0.086	1.309
20250703	E1	General	4.744	0.205	0.428	2.867	0.008	1.236
20250704	E1	General	4.182	0.216	0.273	2.435	0.121	1.137
20250705	E1	General	3.660	0.216	0.603	1.377	0.271	1.193
20250706	E1	General	3.525	0.140	0.337	2.114	0.081	0.853
20250707	E1	General	4.103	0.210	0.399	2.079	0.343	1.072
20250708	E1	General	4.501	0.241	0.580	1.989	0.335	1.356
20250709	E1	General	3.851	0.187	0.381	1.820	0.547	0.916
Total:	E1	General	59.967	2.992	5.716	32.095	3.317	15.847

Here is my consumption so far for my Imported electricity, based on my current tariff times. Note the usage during the 10:00 to 15:00 Solar Soaker time period.

On average my HW System consumes 3kwH per day.

Now you should produce similar data from your AGL or SAPN data. Remember though that your SAPN data is supplied to you in Eastern Standard Time even when daylight savings exists.

AGL can also supply you a NEM format file on request however I do not believe that they will do it in 5 minute format.