We are wanting to hear from solar owners in NSW who may have experienced delays in the installation of their smart meter. If so they are still sending their solar power to the grid with little financial reward.
We’d like to know which energy companies are involved and how long it is taking, or took?
Switched to Powershop in June last year as they promised they’d install the smart meter before the end of the year. It didn’t happen, I was chasing them up, but their installer Metropolis was useless with providing any installation date.
I was notified last week that they install is going to be Friday March 17 2017, I’ll believe it once the install is actually completed.
My mother and her husband installed a large solar system to supply their computer business with cheap power. They paid $800 for the smart meter and it was installed two days after the solar panels were installed. Their energy provider is Origin and they live in northern New South Wales.
I signed up with Mojo the first week of December 16, which I know was leaving it a bit late but I didn’t expect it installed on the 1st of Jan, although I was given the impression it would be installed by the end of Jan 17 Then they had problems with the address linked to my NMI number not matching my address. This took until the 16th of January to be resolved and I got many apologies for the internal IT error, but this doesn’t help me get my meter any faster. Then my account wasn’t transferred to Mojo until the 30th of Jan because I had to wait for the cool off period to pass. Since then I have been billed twice, but still no meter. This is the response I got from Mojo on the 9th of Feb “Hi Carissa, Your transfer was just completed last week on Monday, it normally takes 4-6 weeks from the transfer completion date for the meter to be installed. This is the second week, so we don’t have a solid schedule right now, but we are engaging the metering providers to source the meter and establish schedules. As soon as they provide us with an updated meter installation schedule with your property on it, we’ll be in touch to let you know the next step.” So going by their 4-6 week schedule from transfer completion date, my meter should be installed today by the latest, but I have not heard a thing. I have been emailing them since Tuesday, and no one has even bothered to reply to me. My next step is to get on Facebook and let them and the rest of Australia know how I really feel.
Origin advised on 5 September they would be installing my new meter but no action since.
Time to look for a new supplier.
We had the installer from Red Energy come to install only to find that due to lack of mobile reception (being in an Optus black spot) he was unable to proceed.
I’ve been contacting AGL since last December to have my meter changed over from gross to net and even though they’ve said they’d send a letter to make appointments, i’ve never received anything and never get anywhere when calling them on the phone. I’d say it is in their interests to (pretty much) steal solar power from us and sell it to others at an inflated price.
AGL sent a letter last year promising smart meter installation ‘in the near future’. Have not heard from them since. I phoned recently and was told the ‘the target date for installation is before the end of April’. I didn’t ask which year.
As I suspected, I stayed home from work and waited all day for the guys from Metropolis to turn up, they didn’t. I was then told I’d get a new install date the following week, that came and went and nothing. Early this week I received an email telling me it would be installed before April 30. Today, unannounced the guys turned up to do the install, fortunately my wife was still home and was able to remove the Endeavour Energy lock. The guys are so useless that they don’t even bring the key to unlock the meter boxes that have locks on them. So much for giving me 7 days notice like I’ve asked for multiple times in writing already.
Fingers crossed it will all be worth it and I will get home and all my appliances will work, the solar will be working and the offpeak HWS will still function. I haven’t paid for this conversion as it is all been paid for by Powershop, but I am truly disappointed by the absolutely shocking service level from Metropolis.
My smart meter was installed on April 7th. Now to wait the minimum 6 - 8 weeks before the meter details are updated in the national database.
Here’s @AlisonPotter’s story on smart meter rip-offs for those interested. In particular, note that “The Energy and Water Ombudsman recommends customers seek compensation” for out of pocket costs.
