bertybuttface

Sounds like you'd be happier if the charges were means tested, I could get behind that if thats what it takes to not put people that just about have enough to put solar in off doing so. £300 is the difference between an extra 500 watts of solar panel or not. That's not insignificant. I'm not arguing noone can afford to pay, clearly some of us can, I'm arguing that it shouldn't be more expensive because as you rightly point out many already do not have the necessary capital to expend. We should be lowering the barrier to entry not raising it.

The link you sent does not say what you think it does, read it again. These charges for G100 are new. I agree we should park it there though. You have your opinion, I have mine, and that is ok. Also sorry for the derail Umer.

I think we will have to agree to disagree, any financial penalty works as a disincentive. It might only put a handful of people off but that is still a handful of people too many.

There is a 3rd option of the cost being met by government from tax revenue. In my opinion the fairest system would involve the government providing interest free loans to anyone that wanted to fit solar but we are getting way off topic. The simple fact remains that some DNOs do not charge so these fees are likely unnecessary.

Regardless of whether someone is rich or poor the charge is unfair. If charges didn't put people off things why do we use them as fines for behaviour society tries to discourage? It is also even more manifestly unfair in that it is a postcode lottery but the same could be said about power costs in general.

Just because I didn't have to pay it doesn't mean I think others should. Ah I see, you had to pay it so others should have to pay it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

The dialog is somewhat understandable, a nominal fee even, but £300 is coming it a bit don't you think? Don't forget those new to solar have zero government subsidies, a very low export rate, a large upfront cost and now they get hit with this extra fee. We charge overly large extra fees on things we want to discourage (e.g. a speeding fine). Do we really want to be discouraging solar uptake?

Not sure how it works with CT clamps but remember that is only one method. SolarEdge sell an inline meter as well as a CT clamp based one. You can also use any other Growatt compatible meter. If you feel like trying it I'd be interested to know how the inverter responds? My original claim is the power company shouldn't be charging £300 for the privilege of filling out one form. My subsequent claim is that if you are export limited and using kit from a reputable supplier you aren't a threat to the power grid. This charge is unfair and unreasonable IMO. If you check G100 it even allows you to be out of spec for up to 5 seconds so polling time lag clearly does not leave you in a state that they are concerned about.

At what point in time were G100 applications charged for (prior to now)? Yes and no, the inverter is a modbus client and the meter is a modbus server, the inverter polls the meter so would know that it could no longer connect. It would limit export in this instance (this is covered in Solar Edge's online course). As for reaction lag you are correct but this would hardly be considered generation above the levels that would get you fined. It corrects within less than a second. I'll try and get some decent graphs of this to show you. There is no point in me continuing to discuss this with you if you are going to be like that. Feel free to reply but you won't receive any more interaction from me

Not true, the SolarEdge one (which I know you also have) can be set to not export at all. Go have a look in SetApp (or you can even set it via Modbus if you don't have access to SetApp).

I don't need to, I'm grandfathered in under the old system (G97 I think?) but my point is this: If the DNO want the info, don't charge for the privilege of providing it. There is absolutely no reason (or legal requirement) to have to pay their shitty little charge to get their ridiculously shit export rate. You can simply choose not to export. I repeat yet again for those at the back - there does not seem to be any mechanism to fine you for not jumping through their hoops and paying their little protection racket charge.

If you want to lick boots and pay for something that was formally free thats up to you. I'm not saying do whatever you want and stay installing non type approved equipment. I'm saying it is totally unreasonable some are charged £300 and others are not. If that rubs you up the wrong way I'd put it to you that is a you problem not a me problem.

Read your own link, exceeding export limits can result in fines. You seem to have missed where I have written multiple times "if you aren't exporting". Would you please kindly tell me how one could exceed export limits if one was not indeed exporting? Do we not agree that this is impossible? If you don't have batteries then you should look at them. It is likely more cost effective than export. The SolarEdge battery has a 10 year warranty.

If it is such a vital service then charging for it (and ultimately lowering uptake) is an incredibly irresponsible move for them to take. Both of your examples are convoluted to the point of irrelevance. If you are using an inverter from a reputable manufacturer and you aren't exporting there is absolutely zero possibility of either of them occurring.

I've looked (again not a lawyer) and I can't find anything about fines. You are correct that they can threaten to disconnect you if you don't put in a G99/G100 but they can usually be done after installation anyway so just put one in if they give you any crap. If they didn't start charging for a G99/G100 we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. It is an anti-competitive stealth charge on microgeneration and its bullshit. Especially that some have to pay and others don't. In June if your battery is full by 10AM it is very likely that either you have over specced your panels for your needs or you are using gas water heating. It also gives you a budget for air conditioning. Sure everyone is different, that's great, some can pay for the G99/G100, others don't have to. There are plenty of people with solar that don't export anything, why should they be forced to pay for an export license?

Wow they've upped that since I last looked, nice, almost triple the rate of anyone else. The only issues being it only seems to be available on Agile Export, not any of their economy 7 tariffs and you need a smart meter so if you are in a poor mobile coverage area like we are you are out of luck. You also can't mix and match with their EV tariff.

I'm suggesting not exporting at all. That means the network won't need to handle any power whatsoever. Other than not being able to get SEG there doesn't seem to be any need to get a G98 if you aren't exporting. Unless you know something I don't?

@umerDiamond core cutters aren't cheap but once you've got one jobs like this are suddenly rather simple.

If you aren't exporting power I just don't see how it has anything to do with the DNO whatsoever. Presuming your inverter meets the required standards there is no safety issue. Charging you for the privilege of you telling them you aren't exporting is bullshit. If they really insist on knowing the very least they could do is not charge. Edit: correct me if I am wrong here but the only downside to not having a G99 certificate is you can't get SEG. Why anyone would want to export at 3.4p per kWh is beyond me. I'd rather turn the immersion heater on or charge a battery.

Obligatory I am not a lawyer and this is probably bollocks disclaimers nonetheless but I just don't get how they can now start charging people to prove that they are already doing the right thing. Especially for someone not exporting at all. If they keep this up they will just push people towards disconnecting from the grid entirely and using batteries for 6 months of the year. The export rate is already a joke for those fitting solar today.

I'm not personally attempting to do so but a couple of options spring to mind: 1. Some inverters have cloud monitoring, this data is tamper proof as it is stored on the suppliers cloud (SolarEdge do this). 2. Some meters track export, they could interrogate your smart meter, this should be somewhat tamper proof. 3. You might have fitted your own meter, some of them can only be completely reset not modified as they are used as revenue meters. A terrible 4th option (don't actually do this) would be to make sure the cable is rated for the limited export power but not beyond. You could then cause a fire at your house with the wrong settings but you could never (expletive deleted) with the DNO.

If you can prove your inverter is both limited to 0 watt export and has never exported any power do you still need a G99?

What if you capped export? Would that still count?

You could use a Modbus Proxy such as https://pypi.org/project/modbus-proxy/

How many kWh are you able to discharge? I found where I read it now but it seems like I may have been conned. "The SolarEdge Energy Bank is designed for use with SolarEdge Energy Net for Wireless communication. The inverter might require a matching SolarEdge Energy Net Plug-in (more details below). Using RS485 could reduce the usable energy to 9500Wh" https://www.solaredge.com/sites/default/files/se-energy-bank-battery-datasheet-nam.pdf I suspect could should read won't and they just wanted some extra money from me.