They always seem to give credit rather than refunds. Guess your new bill maybe no charge. Synergy & Western Power have their own rules. All I can say, is that they love to take take take. Unfortunately they swore blind, it wasn’t their fault. It was those Western Power estimates that I couldn’t understand as my power box was on the house side that I needed to be free to wheel the garbage bins down the pathway & driveway. No trees, nothing. Why was there estimates??
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I would take this up with your MP. Give them a call and arrange to meet their support staff, which should mean you can see them within a few days. Then if they think you have a strong case they can either arrange another meeting with your MP, or to get the MP to write to Synergy.
The figures tell the story. They need to explain what device you own can possibly use a (4?) fold increase in consumption.
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Also with our solar in W.A.
I get 2.5c export and they charge us 28c for usage.
Export prices are a lot better over east…
This is not far away from the Robodebt mindset in that the customer must prove their innocence because the operators have a “Policy”. This highway robbery will have to be settled in court as a class action. That will force the suppliers to tell the truth and provide evidence or pay compensation. You have to tell the truth in a courtroom or pay the price of perjury. You have to have hard evidence of reading meters, not guessing. Having a ‘policy’ will not wash in a court of law. My wife lost ten months of her pension because Synergy hid behind their ‘Policy’ mask when they lied to the AAT. It was a bald-faced lie. They got away with it, and she lost her pension. Don’t believe anything Synergy tells you.
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Thank you for your insight. I have nothing but the truth on my side but seeing it happened in Sept-Nov 2021, I was renting at the time & didn’t take photos of my meter box readings. Told the real estate & the house owner what was happening. Well no correspondence on their part. But at least I told the truth & was open. I love everything about truth & openness, that is the only way to live so everyone is on the same page. Big corporations get away with blue murder. We pay for people who don’t pay their bills. I am a gardener & there was a druggie house across the road from where I gardened. Police had to move them out because they hadn’t paid rent, electricity etc for 18mths!! The house owner told me. Asked why Synergy didn’t turn off the electricity but apparently that is illegal to do so in WA!!! Couldn’t believe it. Us little people get trodden on by big companies & they don’t care. That was shocking what happened to your wife, a prize example of being trodden on by big companies. I am so sorry. I first approached this forum so maybe Choice could analyse the best electrical company in Australia. I have had a very good response, one was on Synergy’s side. It has been a good talking point & getting other people’s opinions. I now own & about to get a 6kw solar installed at a cost of $11,000 (solar, inverter & battery) including the Federal Government rebate. WA has no rebates on solar. I have a smart meter box apparently & am watching it!! I honestly don’t want another bill (should have said ‘bills’) like this again. I had to organise a bill payment plan from Synergy at the time as $1800 (minus their waiver of $300) is a massive payment for anybody.
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Didn’t know this about the solar buy back scheme. Later this month I am getting a 6kw system + battery installed so hopefully I pay a very modest bill. Fingers crossed tightly!!!
Our solar array (no battery) has meant we no longer pay electricity bills. But you still have to be careful. It is not about conserving electricity where Synergy is concerned. They are all about profit. Watch their next move to load bills with a surcharge if you give them your electricity using a solar array. If they can’t bill you for use, they will bill you for non-use.
Agree!! Lets see how my 6kw solar work. For a $11,000 (after Federal Government rebate), I should have no bills 
. At present I have a 2kw system when I purchased this house but that runs the pool. My first bill arrived 7th Feb, $217 for 68 days. I am hoping it gets closer to $0 but I would imagine my next bill will be abit higher seeing the evaporative air con has been on for the past hot days we have had in Perth.
If planning to make money rather than just reduce your bill the following link may provide some very sobering reading:
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Not wanting to make a profit, not at 2c!! Just thoroughly reducing my electricity bills only.
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Our main aim still remains to reduce our power bills, but there are future costs we need to help offset such as replacement of failing inverters as they age. Why are they allowing power companies (some are only retailers who do not produce anything but bills) to profit from our expenditure.
The tax is expected to increase bills by about $30 per year (is this a very soft estimate). While we save over $1,300 per quarter some of the solar credits we receive offset the battery and panel costs and the electricity we do draw from the grid. If I am helping the environment by reducing carbon usage, by putting renewable power into the grid; why am I going to be penalised? Rather than penalise the small households for producing energy, why not penalise the carbon burners for burning carbon. Why not invest in making the grid more bi-directional and add large amounts of storage to store the excess produced to use in the times when production is low or nil. All that I see from the tax is that we are being made to pay the power companies more to their profit lines and we receive less service.
I think, that over time we all will be placed on TOU (Time of Use) rates that will mean that the costliest period for drawing power from the grid will be between those hours when most solar systems are not producing power, i.e., 4 pm to 9 or 10 pm when most households are cooking and so on. So when we are able to produce the most power we will be taxed and when we are in the period when we cannot produce power and need to pull from the grid we will be paying for that electricity at premium rates. Who is benefiting? As one article states “And because there are only 140,000 or so battery systems nationwide but millions of houses with solar panels, most working families will not be able to store or export power at night.”.
Our self sufficiency with our panels and one battery is around 70%, which means we still draw about 30% of our power needs from the grid. Most of this draw is the periods where the light is obscured (clouds) or during the evening to morning when the battery has reached it’s reserved point (a safety setting to cater for any grid outages when we will need power for medical equipment). Much of the draw from the grid is during off-peak hours as the battery carries us through the early evening period. If a person does not have a battery and is just relying on panels, then the period between when the panels cease to produce power, means they will mostly be pulling from the grid at highest TOU price point in the day. Due to working families not often being home during the day, this will not mean any great saving in energy costs for them and may indeed mean they will end up worse off as they cannot shift their usage pattern.
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Thank you, great piece of information. Its amazing, we get solar thinking we will have a reduced bill in the long run. Solar panels last about 10 yrs. Getting the solar, inverter, battery + installation = $11,500 roughly (rebate already applied). After all this being installed sometime in March, I am hoping to recoup from the cost. Luckly I am a patient woman!!!
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Possibly true of some panels produced early on. Today quality PV panels have a warranted life of 25 years according to the most recent Choice review and buying guide.
The greatest benefit of solar PV + battery comes when maximising self consumption, and avoiding purchasing from the grid.
The saving compares to Synergy’s daily flat rate Home Plan (A1) at 30.0605 c/kWh.
Note:
Synergy indicated the DEBS buyback rate increases to 10 c/kWh for any export after 3pm. This is significantly less than the cost of energy from your battery storage. It’s however an opportunity if there is surplus rooftop PV available after 3pm from well orientated W to NW facing panels. The battery inverter needs to be configured to a nil export mode. Hopefully previously discussed with the supplier of the system.
My back of hand calculation (there are too many variables for generality) suggests the payback for PV + battery will be in the region of 8 to 15 years. While it is not just about economics that is what drives most decisions on such investments.
A more rigorous approach is at
noting FiTs are now commonly half that used in their generalised back-of-hand.
One conclusion: As a senior I doubt I will be around (or living independently) 15 years hence so as an economic issue why would I use capital that supports me now (investment income) but adds personal risk (maintenance and management) when at end of life (me or the system) there would be no gain and probably no discernable difference in property value? Not soliciting answers, just putting the proposition out there for each to consider.
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I have two recent experiences of questionable business practices by Synergy. Around last December they sent us a letter advising they were switching us, for our family home, from their flat rate tariff to their Midday Saver tariff which has a fixed supply charge charge, but lower consumption charges, with no consultation (which we challenged and stopped happening) . This coincided with us installing batteries which reduced our consumption charges by around 80%. More recently, for a small home we are having built for a relative, Synergy again applied the Midday Saver tariff. The bill we just got is for $79.93, comprising $71.56 Supply charge, $7.27 GST and $1.10 consumption charges. It makes no sense for us to be using that tariff, the flat rate tariff bill, for less than 9kwh consumed, would be around $3. So it looks like Synergy is pushing people to their (so-called) Midday Saver tariff, as it guarantees they get a fixed income (the Supply charge) when they see their consumption revenue dropping or they anticipate little revenue in the case of a house under construction. This is not acting in customers’ best interests, but in the interest of generating maximum revenues.
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