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Smart meter sending Solar generation as consumption?

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Had solar and battery storage installed in December. All working as it should and inverter is showing solar generation, as is the Solar company’s app. But on the OVO portal and app our kWh consumption is unchanged, despite solar company data showing that we’re generating and using solar.

 

Rang the solar installer and they advised to contact OVO as they needed to send an update to the meter so it will record correctly.

 

I spent 5 hours in the web chat queue today to speak to someone. Eventually reached position 3 and then never got any further. So I thought I’d ask here first whether anyone has heard of this before and will a simple call fix the issue or not?

 

Just looking to hear similar experiences before I face another day of waiting in a long queue to get nowhere.

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Best answer by BPLightlog 9 January 2023, 22:28

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juliamc
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@hydrosam may have experience of this??

M.isterW
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Smart meters shouldn't need to be updated to handle exports. I wonder if your solar PV has been connected to the wrong side of the meter.

 

Follow the cable out of your inverter. Does it go to your main consumer unit or do you have a separate consumer unit just for the solar PV?

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
M.isterW
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You can also check that the meter is recording exports. If you post a picture of the meter someone will tell you how to get it to display the export figure.

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
H
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Not entirely sure of the process but unless you have a very big solar array I doubt you’ll notice much difference in your daily consumption at this time of the year. Solar PV yield (amount elec produced) is very low in the winter months. 

Have you registered for your smart export guarantee? https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/smart-export-guarantee
 

This will ensure you get paid for what you export to the grid, which again will be peanuts at this time of year but could be worthwhile in spring, autumn and summer depending on how big your solar array is, whether you have a battery to store what you generate, how much elec you use daily and finally who you have your SEG with. OVO pay about 4p/kWh I think @Tim_OVO can clarify. Octopus pay up to 15p/kWh. Your import and export do not have to be with the same supplier. 
 

If you haven’t registered for the SEG, you won’t get paid anything. Solar installers really should be passing this info on to the home owners. 
 

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
H
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Sorry didn’t read your original post properly. You have a battery. 

Is it set up for self-consumption mode, standby or export to grid? You probably want self-consumption as exporting to grid doesn’t pay 4-15p export vs 34p for importing. 

But the above is still valid, are you generating sufficient that you’d notice it against daily consumption? If you have some solar generation vs daily consumption figures that would help understand the scale. 

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
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Thanks for all the replies. To clarify - I’m not taking about exports to the grid as we’re not generating enough solar at the minute to be exporting much at all.

We’re generating between 6 and 9 kWh a day at the moment from solar. Most is consumed by the house and the rest is charging the battery for use when the solar isn’t generating. But our OVO grid consumption is showing as unchanged from before we had solar, exactly the same sort of figures, despite us importing far less from the grid because of the solar.

The solar installer has looked at the system and agrees something is wrong and, as I say, seemed very confident that an ‘update’ needed sending to the smart meter to enable it to stop seeing solar use by the house as consumption. But this does seem odd to me, hence asking here!

Attached is a picture of the meter setup. Picture was taken a few days ago so I realise doesn’t include the Solar PV box. I can take another tomorrow including this if needed.

Blastoise186
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Please show me a close up of the meter display while exports are in progress - that’s the display on the meter itself, NOT your In-Home Display. Make sure it’s lit up as well!

I can use that to figure out whether it’s set up properly.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
S
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Please show me a close up of the meter display while exports are in progress - that’s the display on the meter itself, NOT your In-Home Display. Make sure it’s lit up as well!

I can use that to figure out whether it’s set up properly.

What do you mean while exports are in progress? Do you mean exports of solar generated power to the grid? If so, that’s not what I’m talking about - we’re hardly exporting anything at the moment. I’m talking about OVO thinking that solar generated power is in fact grid consumption and counting it towards our usage from the grid.

Blastoise186
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Any amount of exports of any size would be enough for what I need. :)

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
S
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Any amount of exports of any size would be enough for what I need. :)

Then I shall hope for enough sunshine to do a bit of exporting and that I happen to catch it! Thanks

H
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Hmm. My guess would be that the battery is holding on to the solar generated and not feeding it in to the house, like it’s setup in standby mode in case of a power cut. Obviously making assumptions here. 

Do you have an app or website you can screenshot todays figures to show us? 

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
BPLightlog
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Hi @stefbrowne_132 on your picture I can only see one CT connection for the solar PV / Battery system .. there are usually 2. These can be arranged back to front and give false readings to the solar system (what make is it?)

Unless the installer has connected incorrectly, your smart meter which the energy company uses (OVO in this case) cannot add the solar generation onto the meter reading. As others have said, your smart meter does not need updating to cope with a solar installation.  

 

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@BPLightlog one CT clamp (the white block) is usually sufficient if the solar and battery are connected to the same hybrid inverter, which you would expect for a fresh install. A second CT clamp would only be needed if there is a separate inverter for the solar PV or there is a diverter for an immersion heater in the hot water tank. 
The CT clamp is exactly the same model as mine and is in the same orientation, so think this is ok. 

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
M.isterW
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I can't see anything wrong in the photo and your smart meter doesn't need an update (your solar installer is talking nonsense).

If your system has been installed and set up correctly it will generate electricity which your house will use (or will go into your battery). If you're still convinced that you're using as much electricity from the grid as you were before it's probably because your solar PV system isn't working properly. 

 

Can you post some pictures of your solar app showing how much you've generated over a day, how much the house has used and what electricity has gone into the battery?

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
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Thanks for all the info. Will attempt to answer all the questions posed above. Sorry, I probably didn’t give enough info up front, thinking this might be a simple thing someone had experienced themselves!

We have a 15 panel system with inverter and battery set for self consumption. I’ve attached screengrabs from the app showing today’s data.

OVO is consistently showing around 11kWh consumption a day.

We have economy 7 and charge the 6kW battery at night, hence you’ll see that on the graph.

The figures just don’t make any sense to me and when I called the solar installer, they agreed that the graphs are not making sense, but (obviously) were convinced everything was functioning as it should. They very confidently said that they’d seen this with two other customers this week and gave the advice about the smart meter incorrectly seeing the solar generation. This doesn’t make any sense to me. The solar app is not remotely user friendly either!

juliamc
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Oops that has you personal info on the screen You should still be able to edit those pics out and repost 

S
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Oops that has you personal info on the screen You should still be able to edit those pics out and repost 

Thanks. The problem with doing things late in the evening. Have cropped and reposted.

M.isterW
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I think the charts are showing that your total daily electricity use is around 16 to 18kWh. Is that what you were using before the solar panels were installed?

 

You're generating somewhere between 4 and 9kWh per day and using all of it (exporting nothing). That means your daily use from the grid will be around 8 to 13kWh. Is that what your smart meter is showing?

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
S
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I think the charts are showing that your total daily electricity use is around 16 to 18kWh. Is that what you were using before the solar panels were installed?

 

You're generating somewhere between 4 and 9kWh per day and using all of it (exporting nothing). That means your daily use from the grid will be around 8 to 13kWh. Is that what your smart meter is showing?

Thanks for your reply. This is the whole reason for my post. My usage before Solar was around 11kWh a day every single day. I’ve never used 16-18kWh as far back as the records go. So I’m still using the same as I did before, but these charts are showing a significant increase in usage.

BPLightlog
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Hi @stefbrowne_132 looking at you top line graph above, when charging overnight the battery line (blue) is positive which normally would show when being used. If being charged, it is a negative line (below zero) like shown when your solar is charging. There’s something odd about the overnight charging unless you’re exporting to the grid at that time instead

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M.isterW
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I think the blue line is showing positive when the battery is charging and negative when it's discharging. Look at the graph from 15:25. The green line, which is the electricity the house is using, is a mirror of the blue line because the house is drawing from the battery.

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
S
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Hi @stefbrowne_132 looking at you top line graph above, when charging overnight the battery line (blue) is positive which normally would show when being used. If being charged, it is a negative line (below zero) like shown when your solar is charging. There’s something odd about the overnight charging unless you’re exporting to the grid at that time instead

Thanks, I did wonder about this, but the graphs are so confusing I figured it was just me! I’ve kind of assumed though that the positive side of the graph is showing power going ‘in’ and the negative power going ‘out’. So it would make sense that the battery power would rise at the rate the grid was being used at that point. I don’t know if I’m right about that, it’s just how I’ve tried to make sense of it.

S
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I think the blue line is showing positive when the battery is charging and negative when it's discharging. Look at the graph from 15:25. The green line, which is the electricity the house is using, is a mirror of the blue line because the house is drawing from the battery.

Yes, this is how I’m reading it too.

M.isterW
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Do you have a picture of your half hourly meter readings for the same day?

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
BPLightlog
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I think the blue line is showing positive when the battery is charging and negative when it's discharging. Look at the graph from 15:25. The green line, which is the electricity the house is using, is a mirror of the blue line because the house is drawing from the battery.

Yes, this is how I’m reading it too.

So to me that is opposite to what I would consider normal 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal

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