Solar smart meter installation time

[kev2108]

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.

[jayden_AGL]

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

[MnM]

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....

[jayden_AGL]

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

[gaskerry00]

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

[gaskerry00]

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. 

[Mxmkrs1]

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.

[kev2108]

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.

[SylviaElse]

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.

[Mxmkrs1]

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.