Hi @sjl017
Your rebate FIT was allocated to the installed system.
If you modify the system in any way then you loose your rebate FIT.
When most users got the high rebate FIT's they only had small systems 1-3 kw.
Your local energy supplier would have given the installation a SEG (Small Energy Generator) licence.
They use those licences to calculate loading factors on their infrastructure.
To modify your system your installer must apply for a new SEG and if approved your existing SEG (and any government rebates) are cancelled.
We have had solar installed for only 2 years and in that time we have recovered the complete cost of our solar installation and in June will probably receive a cheque from AGL of around the $800 mark.
Since having solar installed we have generated 21645kW of solar of which we have fed to the grid 15520kW which means that we self consumed 6125kw.
We get paid 20c per KW for feed-in ($3104) we pay 40c per kW for usage and therefore saved $2450 in our self consumption, thus giving us a net return of $5554 on our original $3299 investment.
So as of the 18th Feb we are $2255 in profit for installing the solar.
Further to this we had a free heat-pump hot water system installed at the same time and have not paid for any hot water usage since then.
Unfortunately in April our current 20c feed in will drop to 16c per kW but our usage charge will drop to 35c per kW.
Our projected bill for account due 18th April is $172.39 credit but if I apply the new rates this will drop to $77.62 credit.
Now you may ask why have I given all of this data to you, well it is because I have spreadsheets that keep track of all my data and allow me to fairly accurately calculate my next bill and thus give me a amount that I must pay each fortnight for water, electricity, council rates and the SA emergency services levy.
By the way if I got your 52c FIT my current projected bill would be $930.58 credit and I would have only taken about 8 months to pay for my investment.
I would suggest though, that if you only have a small system that you may greatly benefit from an increase in your system size.
You can use your last bill to roughly calculate your new costs. Do not factor in the supply charge because this is a fixed compulsory charge.
In our case the supply charge is currently about $81 a quarter (or costs us about 405kW off of our generation for the quarter, 506kW when we go to the new rate).
Reporting from 20210118 for 32 Days
DATE TYPE NMI Last Data Meter Read Avg
20210218 Solar B1 28.363 15519.098 26.326
20210218 General E1 9.071 3835.17 6.244
Above is a report from my MeterRead program that takes the data from the csv file that AGL supplies from a smart meter and converts it into a highly usefull spreadsheet which includes your actual meter readings at midnight and your daily averages in your current billing periods.
Reporting from 20190428 for 663 Days
DATE TYPE NMI Last Data Meter Read Avg
20210218 Solar B1 28.363 13492.623 20.351
20210218 General E1 9.071 3328.196 5.020
Above is the data since we moved to AGL on the 28 Apr 2019
Below is the data from the last two years that I can get from my electricity supplier
(SA Power Networks).
Reporting from 20190220 for 730 Days
DATE TYPE NMI Last Data Meter Read Avg
20210218 Solar B1 28.363 14960.994 20.495
20210218 General E1 8.917 3736.533 5.119
That high usage rate for our last data purchased power is due to the fact that for the last 4 days we have had over 38 degrees and have had the evaporative AC running nearly constantly.
By the way your contract is available on your AGL account via the web or the app.
This will show you what AGL is paying you for your feed-in and the costs per kW for your usage and your supply charge.
So your 52c feed-in will be the AGL rate plus your Government rebate per kW.
This may be a good time for you look at your AGL contract and compare it with other AGL offers and also other providers.
You may find that your initial contract has expired and they have put you on a similar contract to your last one (which may not be the best for you now) !
I know in SA that AGL is the best offer for me at this time, however as you can see we have a very low consumption rate and a high feed-in rate, about 4:1 ratio.
Hope this helps
Neil
Cheers Neil
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