The Model S is powerful, let's make that power sustainable

[wpapua]

How much do Diamond pay for a FIT?

Diamond's FIT (that may (?) only apply to a new solar PV installation) was 20c, & 25c if SunPower panels (good, but expensive) were installed, which we did. Limited to 2 years only, after which you revert to the State mandated 8c. There is a monthly limit, I think about 135kWH, after which it drops to the mandated 8c. It is quite apparent that, recently feeding in over 17kWH per day from 14 x 327W panels (4.5kW), we will exceed the monthly limit fairly readily ! In South Western Vic - hope this helps.

 

[Higgy]

i misunderstood you too. but yes powershop have to support it because the don't get a choice they are really just reselling ausgrid products. if you think of ausgrid as telstra wholesale and internode is powershop... your currently on bigpond..

Yes in the sense that all the grids are connected and supply power from the same mains - however Powershop are owned by Meridian Energy who own and operate the Mt Millar wind farm in South Australia. They are also building the 131MW Mt Mercer wind farm near Ballarat in Victoria.

Powershop/Meridian support the retention of the RET, and you can choose to have all renewable energy for a 4.9 c premium. I am happy that my monies do not end up supporting the legacy brown coal generators - nor the companies (AGL, Origin, etc) pushing for the RET to be lowered.

Cheers
David

 

[timpoo]

Yes in the sense that all the grids are connected and supply power from the same mains - however Powershop are owned by Meridian Energy who own and operate the Mt Millar wind farm in South Australia. They are also building the 131MW Mt Mercer wind farm near Ballarat in Victoria.

Powershop/Meridian support the retention of the RET, and you can choose to have all renewable energy for a 4.9 c premium. I am happy that my monies do not end up supporting the legacy brown coal generators - nor the companies (AGL, Origin, etc) pushing for the RET to be lowered.

Cheers
David

Thanks David - I concur.

The great thing is that even if people choose "regular" power and choose not to pay the 4.9c premium, all profits go back into renewable energy anyway.

 

[president_ltd]

Am in VIC with 5KW of PFIT in UED. This means that the rates powershop offer are as per http://www.powershop.com.au/content/ppis/PSH-UE-SP-40417-XR.pdf

If thats the best they do, Momentum Energy 100% energy from renewable sources is substantially better.

 

[Dborn]

They won't be in NSW before mid to late 2015. Half my solar gets a 60c tariff, the rest is AGL's crappy 8c. A bit short sighted up front, I was. Not really sure, until I get a definitive quote at the time, whether a change over will be worth it.

 

[timpoo]

Am in VIC with 5KW of PFIT in UED. This means that the rates powershop offer are as per http://www.powershop.com.au/content/ppis/PSH-UE-SP-40417-XR.pdf

If thats the best they do, Momentum Energy 100% energy from renewable sources is substantially better.

Hi President, are you talking about your PFIT rates or the straight up electricity rates?

As far as I'm aware, their solar rates are here: http://www.powershop.com.au/content/terms-and-conditions/20131010_-_Powershop_Solar_Rate_Card.pdf

Not sure what Momentum pays but Powershop pay 68c for PFIT.

If you're talking about standard electricity rates, then that document is a little outdated. I'm currently getting around 19c per kw from Powershop.

EDIT: by the way guys I'm not trying to push anyone to change, but I thought if you want to take advantage of the deal it's there. From an environmental point of view I wish everyone would switch but I know different people have different priorities so each to their own!!

 

[president_ltd]

Hi President, are you talking about your PFIT rates or the straight up electricity rates?

i'm talking about the offpeak + peak rates for TOU metering in NMI 61 (UED distibution area) with PFIT.
i'm also talking about what would be the actual real cost taking into account the last 36 months of interval data i have recorded.

As far as I'm aware, their solar rates are here: http://www.powershop.com.au/content/terms-and-conditions/20131010_-_Powershop_Solar_Rate_Card.pdf

indeed those are their FIT rates - and that 0.68 is the GST inc amt.

Not sure what Momentum pays but Powershop pay 68c for PFIT.

expressed the same way, momentum pay 66c for VIC PFIT. (60c pre-gst amt)

If you're talking about standard electricity rates, then that document is a little outdated. I'm currently getting around 19c per kw from Powershop.

you are comparing apples with oranges. sounds like you're on a single-rate meter change, something that is not possible in UED. UED force TOU metering on those with NMI beginning with 61.

the PDF is the thing i find when i feed in my postcode and that i have TOU metering (imposed by the energy distributor) and have PFIT so if there is some better offer, their website isn't saying.
that they do a per-month peak rate that changes is sort of interesting, but when i plot our actual consumption against it, it doesn't add up as better.

for the record, the comparison is:
Powership (http://www.powershop.com.au/content/ppis/PSH-UE-SP-40417-XR.pdf):
daily charge inc gst: 105.68c
peak c/kWh inc gst (7am-11pm mon-fri): 32.02c/kWh (avg - lowest is 30.12c/kWh in March, hghest is 34.77c/kWh in Feb)
offpeak c/kWh inc gst (11pm-7am mon-fri, weekends): 14.67c

Momentum (http://www.momentumenergy.com.au/system/files/documents/PPIS/2014/March_SA_VIC/20140312%20EPFS-ToU-Electricity-Rates-HOME-VIC.pdf)
daily charge: 116.03c
peak c/kWh inc gst (3pm-10pm mon-fri): 30.62c/kWh
shoulder c/kWh inc gst (7am-3pm mon-fri) 19.17c/kWh
offpeak c/kWh inc gst (10pm-7am mon-fri, weekends): 13.87c

of interest here is that peak/day is only 7 hours (rather than 16 hours), its rate is less and the shoulder rate is substancially less.

EDIT: by the way guys I'm not trying to push anyone to change, but I thought if you want to take advantage of the deal it's there. From an environmental point of view I wish everyone would switch but I know different people have different priorities so each to their own!!

a noble cause - and i agree with it. but they aren't the only 'green' source. momentum is the retail size of Hydro Tas. its 100% renewable.

 

[Higgy]

a noble cause - and i agree with it. but they aren't the only 'green' source. momentum is the retail size of Hydro Tas. its 100% renewable.

Only if you pay the surcharge....otherwise it is whatever your supplier buys in the marketplace.

PS your Powershop rates seem to be before the 20% discount. In my case I use the anytime rates which are around 21c.

 

[president_ltd]

Only if you pay the surcharge....otherwise it is whatever your supplier buys in the marketplace.

please go read the referenced material i posted. its 100% renewable.

PS your Powershop rates seem to be before the 20% discount. In my case I use the anytime rates which are around 21c.

again apples/oranges. you are making the mistake of comparing an 'anytime' tariff structure with the TOU tariff structure that people with PFIT were placed on in UED distribution area.
with a EV like a Tesla you're far far far better off with the lowest off-peak rates you can get which are typically 10-12c/kWh. at that point 'anytime rates' make no sense.

 

[Higgy]

please go read the referenced material i posted. its 100% renewable.



again apples/oranges. you are making the mistake of comparing an 'anytime' tariff structure with the TOU tariff structure that people with PFIT were placed on in UED distribution area.
with a EV like a Tesla you're far far far better off with the lowest off-peak rates you can get which are typically 10-12c/kWh. at that point 'anytime rates' make no sense.

*!*!***** and other expletives - My statement applied to what I am currently paying - not your situation. The reason I gave this real life costing was to apply some balance to your post.

Your assumptions may be the correct ones for you situation. This does not mean you are correct for everyone else. I have done the maths for me and off peak charging does not work for me given the mileage I do. I wont use a full charge each day - if I did I would look for a cheap and green off peak rate.

I also work from home and can charge during the day - for people with solar this would seem a better option than selling back to the grid.


Cheers
David

 

[president_ltd]

I also work from home and can charge during the day - for people with solar this would seem a better option than selling back to the grid.

for people on SFIT rather than TFIT/PFIT: maybe.
but for anyone on PFIT (exports back to grid earn a credit of 60c+/kWh) or TFIT (exports back to grid earn you credit of 33c/kWh) when you can then buy energy back off-peak at ~10c/kWh: i doubt it.

do you already have solar panels or are just planning them? because PV generation varies a lot even within one minute.
i collect data from the pv array here every 15 seconds and have done so over the life of the system (5+ years). statistics on a per 5 minute basis is uploaded at 'el presidente's palace 4.860kW | Live Output

One curious thing we found was that TOU actually saved us money even though we didn't think it would. (we were forced onto it at the time)
I get interval data from the meter automatically. well, not quite, i have a perl script go scrape it from a web portal. makes for comparing energy rates pretty easy.

anyhow, key point is that its easy to make general statements but alas energy retail - particularly in victoria - is challenging to do apples/apples comparisons. i just hate it when people focus on "discount %" when thats not the important metric

 

[timpoo]

anyhow, key point is that its easy to make general statements but alas energy retail - particularly in victoria - is challenging to do apples/apples comparisons. i just hate it when people focus on "discount %" when thats not the important metric

This is very true - we shouldn't be focusing on discounts.

We should focus on where our power comes from, and how much that power costs us and the community in general.

The other reason we partnered with Powershop is because their app makes it very easy to monitor energy consumption of the Model S. But your website is also pretty cool!

 

[president_ltd]

But your website is also pretty cool!

thats just the PV generation data. there's plenty of other data that is collected.
BTW to give you an idea of just how much PV generation bounces around, here's 15 minutes of aggregate data. note how "TotPow" column varies from 1903Wh @ 12:54:58pm then its at 4820Wh @ 12:56:58pm then back at 1426Wh @ 12:58:58pm.

mysql> select *,from_unixtime(t) from spotdata order by t desc limit 10;
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
| t          | temperature | TotPow | OutPh1 | LV_Ph1 | LC_Ph1 | GrdFrq | Bnk_AW | Bnk_BW | Bnk_AV | Bnk_BV | Bnk_AA | Bnk_BA | TYield   | DYield | OperTime | FeedInTime | from_unixtime(t)    |
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
| 1410231777 |          13 |   2207 |   2207 | 243.76 |   9.06 |  49.92 |    753 |   1496 | 321.64 | 329.82 |   2.34 |   4.54 | 27801100 |   5686 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 13:02:57 |
| 1410231657 |          13 |   1613 |   1613 | 243.52 |   6.62 |  49.96 |    540 |   1091 | 321.66 |  329.8 |   1.68 |   3.31 | 27801100 |   5627 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 13:00:57 |
| 1410231538 |          13 |   1426 |   1426 | 242.18 |   5.89 |  49.94 |    473 |    966 | 321.68 | 321.42 |   1.47 |   3.01 | 27801000 |   5574 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 12:58:58 |
| 1410231418 |          13 |   4820 |   4820 | 246.19 |  19.58 |  49.95 |   1723 |   3250 | 306.94 | 342.41 |   5.62 |   9.49 | 27801000 |   5520 |  18123.5 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:56:58 |
| 1410231298 |          13 |   1903 |   1903 | 242.09 |   7.86 |  49.93 |    640 |   1293 | 319.57 | 325.85 |   2.01 |   3.97 | 27800900 |   5434 |  18123.5 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:54:58 |
| 1410231177 |          13 |   1950 |   1950 | 242.45 |   8.05 |  49.91 |    659 |   1322 | 319.57 | 325.87 |   2.06 |   4.06 | 27800800 |   5346 |  18123.4 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:52:57 |
| 1410231058 |          13 |   4322 |   4322 | 244.06 |  17.71 |   49.9 |   1544 |   2906 | 317.62 | 325.61 |   4.86 |   8.93 | 27800700 |   5222 |  18123.4 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:50:58 |
| 1410230937 |          13 |   2001 |   2001 | 241.57 |   8.29 |  49.99 |    674 |   1361 | 317.62 | 325.52 |   2.12 |   4.18 | 27800600 |   5149 |  18123.4 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:48:57 |
| 1410230817 |          13 |   2411 |   2411 | 242.18 |   9.96 |  50.01 |    831 |   1632 | 313.39 | 338.05 |   2.65 |   4.83 | 27800500 |   5051 |  18123.3 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:46:57 |
| 1410230698 |          13 |   4384 |   4384 |  245.2 |  17.88 |  50.03 |   1370 |   2730 | 328.39 | 325.82 |   4.17 |   8.38 | 27800400 |   4968 |  18123.3 |    17803.7 | 2014-09-09 12:44:58 |
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

have similar data from the meter data as measured by energy distributor. in this case its 03 and 13 data from the meter for net consumption and net generation.
happy to supply perl code that grabs this from UE easy energy portal.

mysql> select from_unixtime(t),consumption_wh,generation_wh from ueeasyenergy order by t desc limit 48;
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
| from_unixtime(t)    | consumption_wh | generation_wh |
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
| 2014-09-09 03:30:00 |            294 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 03:00:00 |            294 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 02:30:00 |            269 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 02:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 01:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 01:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 00:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 00:00:00 |            263 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 23:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 23:00:00 |            250 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 22:30:00 |            456 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 22:00:00 |            838 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 21:30:00 |            688 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 21:00:00 |           1050 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 20:30:00 |            581 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 20:00:00 |            631 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 19:30:00 |            744 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 19:00:00 |            406 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 18:30:00 |            350 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 18:00:00 |            394 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 17:30:00 |            469 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 17:00:00 |            438 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 16:30:00 |            738 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 16:00:00 |            456 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 15:30:00 |              0 |           450 |
| 2014-09-08 15:00:00 |              0 |           894 |
| 2014-09-08 14:30:00 |             19 |          1069 |
| 2014-09-08 14:00:00 |             44 |           894 |
| 2014-09-08 13:30:00 |              0 |          1450 |
| 2014-09-08 13:00:00 |              0 |          1369 |
| 2014-09-08 12:30:00 |              0 |          1625 |
| 2014-09-08 12:00:00 |              0 |          1531 |
| 2014-09-08 11:30:00 |              6 |          1375 |
| 2014-09-08 11:00:00 |              0 |          1369 |
| 2014-09-08 10:30:00 |              0 |          1375 |
| 2014-09-08 10:00:00 |            119 |           644 |
| 2014-09-08 09:30:00 |              6 |           925 |
| 2014-09-08 09:00:00 |             94 |           487 |
| 2014-09-08 08:30:00 |            425 |           200 |
| 2014-09-08 08:00:00 |           1681 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 07:30:00 |             31 |           219 |
| 2014-09-08 07:00:00 |            106 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 06:30:00 |            231 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 06:00:00 |            244 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 05:30:00 |            244 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 05:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 04:30:00 |            263 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 04:00:00 |            250 |             0 |
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
48 rows in set (0.00 sec)


mysql>

finally, also have some clamp meters on some circuits here - e.g. reverse cycle A/C as well as PV solar net (because meter data from energy distributor/retailer cannot tell you what power you're consuming internally), but thats pretty specific to our setup here.

none of this is hard to generate and if you have a TOU meter then its typically available via a web portal anyway regardless of which energy retailer you're with.

 

[Dborn]

thats just the PV generation data. there's plenty of other data that is collected.
BTW to give you an idea of just how much PV generation bounces around, here's 15 minutes of aggregate data. note how "TotPow" column varies from 1903Wh @ 12:54:58pm then its at 4820Wh @ 12:56:58pm then back at 1426Wh @ 12:58:58pm.

mysql> select *,from_unixtime(t) from spotdata order by t desc limit 10;
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
| t          | temperature | TotPow | OutPh1 | LV_Ph1 | LC_Ph1 | GrdFrq | Bnk_AW | Bnk_BW | Bnk_AV | Bnk_BV | Bnk_AA | Bnk_BA | TYield   | DYield | OperTime | FeedInTime | from_unixtime(t)    |
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
| 1410231777 |          13 |   2207 |   2207 | 243.76 |   9.06 |  49.92 |    753 |   1496 | 321.64 | 329.82 |   2.34 |   4.54 | 27801100 |   5686 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 13:02:57 |
| 1410231657 |          13 |   1613 |   1613 | 243.52 |   6.62 |  49.96 |    540 |   1091 | 321.66 |  329.8 |   1.68 |   3.31 | 27801100 |   5627 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 13:00:57 |
| 1410231538 |          13 |   1426 |   1426 | 242.18 |   5.89 |  49.94 |    473 |    966 | 321.68 | 321.42 |   1.47 |   3.01 | 27801000 |   5574 |  18123.6 |      17804 | 2014-09-09 12:58:58 |
| 1410231418 |          13 |   4820 |   4820 | 246.19 |  19.58 |  49.95 |   1723 |   3250 | 306.94 | 342.41 |   5.62 |   9.49 | 27801000 |   5520 |  18123.5 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:56:58 |
| 1410231298 |          13 |   1903 |   1903 | 242.09 |   7.86 |  49.93 |    640 |   1293 | 319.57 | 325.85 |   2.01 |   3.97 | 27800900 |   5434 |  18123.5 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:54:58 |
| 1410231177 |          13 |   1950 |   1950 | 242.45 |   8.05 |  49.91 |    659 |   1322 | 319.57 | 325.87 |   2.06 |   4.06 | 27800800 |   5346 |  18123.4 |    17803.9 | 2014-09-09 12:52:57 |
| 1410231058 |          13 |   4322 |   4322 | 244.06 |  17.71 |   49.9 |   1544 |   2906 | 317.62 | 325.61 |   4.86 |   8.93 | 27800700 |   5222 |  18123.4 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:50:58 |
| 1410230937 |          13 |   2001 |   2001 | 241.57 |   8.29 |  49.99 |    674 |   1361 | 317.62 | 325.52 |   2.12 |   4.18 | 27800600 |   5149 |  18123.4 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:48:57 |
| 1410230817 |          13 |   2411 |   2411 | 242.18 |   9.96 |  50.01 |    831 |   1632 | 313.39 | 338.05 |   2.65 |   4.83 | 27800500 |   5051 |  18123.3 |    17803.8 | 2014-09-09 12:46:57 |
| 1410230698 |          13 |   4384 |   4384 |  245.2 |  17.88 |  50.03 |   1370 |   2730 | 328.39 | 325.82 |   4.17 |   8.38 | 27800400 |   4968 |  18123.3 |    17803.7 | 2014-09-09 12:44:58 |
+------------+-------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+------------+---------------------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

have similar data from the meter data as measured by energy distributor. in this case its 03 and 13 data from the meter for net consumption and net generation.
happy to supply perl code that grabs this from UE easy energy portal.

mysql> select from_unixtime(t),consumption_wh,generation_wh from ueeasyenergy order by t desc limit 48;
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
| from_unixtime(t)    | consumption_wh | generation_wh |
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
| 2014-09-09 03:30:00 |            294 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 03:00:00 |            294 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 02:30:00 |            269 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 02:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 01:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 01:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 00:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-09 00:00:00 |            263 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 23:30:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 23:00:00 |            250 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 22:30:00 |            456 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 22:00:00 |            838 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 21:30:00 |            688 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 21:00:00 |           1050 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 20:30:00 |            581 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 20:00:00 |            631 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 19:30:00 |            744 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 19:00:00 |            406 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 18:30:00 |            350 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 18:00:00 |            394 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 17:30:00 |            469 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 17:00:00 |            438 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 16:30:00 |            738 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 16:00:00 |            456 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 15:30:00 |              0 |           450 |
| 2014-09-08 15:00:00 |              0 |           894 |
| 2014-09-08 14:30:00 |             19 |          1069 |
| 2014-09-08 14:00:00 |             44 |           894 |
| 2014-09-08 13:30:00 |              0 |          1450 |
| 2014-09-08 13:00:00 |              0 |          1369 |
| 2014-09-08 12:30:00 |              0 |          1625 |
| 2014-09-08 12:00:00 |              0 |          1531 |
| 2014-09-08 11:30:00 |              6 |          1375 |
| 2014-09-08 11:00:00 |              0 |          1369 |
| 2014-09-08 10:30:00 |              0 |          1375 |
| 2014-09-08 10:00:00 |            119 |           644 |
| 2014-09-08 09:30:00 |              6 |           925 |
| 2014-09-08 09:00:00 |             94 |           487 |
| 2014-09-08 08:30:00 |            425 |           200 |
| 2014-09-08 08:00:00 |           1681 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 07:30:00 |             31 |           219 |
| 2014-09-08 07:00:00 |            106 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 06:30:00 |            231 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 06:00:00 |            244 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 05:30:00 |            244 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 05:00:00 |            256 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 04:30:00 |            263 |             0 |
| 2014-09-08 04:00:00 |            250 |             0 |
+---------------------+----------------+---------------+
48 rows in set (0.00 sec)


mysql>

finally, also have some clamp meters on some circuits here - e.g. reverse cycle A/C as well as PV solar net (because meter data from energy distributor/retailer cannot tell you what power you're consuming internally), but thats pretty specific to our setup here.

none of this is hard to generate and if you have a TOU meter then its typically available via a web portal anyway regardless of which energy retailer you're with.

In NSW. I have time of use meter. How do I access this data? With Energy Australia as distributer and AGL as retailer. Also I have a PV system. What method of monitoring are you using? Proprietary to your inverter?

 

[Gabz]

In NSW. I have time of use meter. How do I access this data? With Energy Australia as distributer and AGL as retailer. Also I have a PV system. What method of monitoring are you using? Proprietary to your inverter?

AGL is a **** retailer i suggested you change to anyone else... but log on to my agl go to my agl iq "explore my energy usage" then "download usage data" bottom left corner. and you can download a CSV of your 15 min meter readings for the past year.

 

[timpoo]

Just an update, I noticed that Powershop's own promo now only has a $50 switch over credit - making this $80 promo pretty good...

 

[president_ltd]

In NSW. I have time of use meter. How do I access this data?

In VIC we have "smart meters" that have a wireless mesh connectivity that don't require meter readers to walk streets.
Seems that in NSW thats not the case (NSW government to sell national electricity meters), at least not yet, so what I have where I can get the same 'data' that the energy retailer gets in quasi-realtime (~6 hours delayed) and combine it with realtime data from the meter (zigbee), seems in NSW you can't yet.

 

[MangroveMike]

In NSW. I have time of use meter. How do I access this data? With Energy Australia as distributer and AGL as retailer. Also I have a PV system. What method of monitoring are you using? Proprietary to your inverter?

I use CurrentCost meters installed on my power and solar circuits for my home stats at http://www.merewether.com/power-usage. You can get them from a few places but I got mine from SmartNow | Install * Monitor and Reduce your Energy * Save. I've been collecting data for a few years and have written my own code to get the info from the CurrentCost display's serial port and populate the website as well as some other locations like Xively. Originally written in perl on Linux, it's been running on a Mac Mini server for a couple of years. The stats are collected every 6 seconds but I selectively graph and roll them up for performance reasons every minute.

The CurrentCost people have a newish product called the bridge (http://www.currentcost.com/product-bridge.html) which plugs into the console and then pushes the data to their own online service where you can see all the stats. Also see http://www.smartnow.com.au/products/envir-energy-monitor/bridge/ . We are using this for Power Monitoring in our office and it works fine..

The installation is pretty simple with a clamp around your active wire. This connects to a wireless transmitter which transmits to the base station. You will need a separate one for solar and power although they can transmit to the same console. I still have two consoles - one with both channels connected to the server, the other (a smaller one called the Envi) in the kitchen just for info. I bought them separately, but on the smartnow website I'm sure they have a 'solar' package with both. I originally had a Jaycar purchased version but the CurrentCost ones are the real deal, and not much more expensive. According to the packet, installation must be done by a qualified electrician but ..... (It's not that hard you are just putting a clamp around a wire/s in your meter box, but just be careful if are unsure - use a electrician if you need to). You can use three clamps to the one transmitter for 3 phase.

It works really well, is pretty cost effective ($300 ish) and you can track your solar as well as keep the electricity suppliers honest.

 

[Dborn]

Thanks, Mangrove!

 

[timpoo]

some interesting reading on the RET and the Big 3.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au...electricity-giants-are-trying-halt-renewables

Given so many on this forum either have solar panels or are interested in renewables, I thought it might be interest for you.