Solar FIT - NSW

UnrealMacaw on 22/04/2014 - 17:24

Hi all,

Just got solar (very excited) and we're with Red Energy who make a point of their enviro credentials, and although their plans are otherwise good (eg, good pay-on-time discount) their Solar FIT is woeful - 5c/kWh.

The IPART recommended minimum is 6.6c, and even Origin is beating Red Energy at 6c, AGL at 8c and a company I'm not sure about called Click at 10c.

Two questions:

  • Who provides the best overall plan for solar owners? (I know there are lots of factors involved, but in your personal experience who's best?)

  • Are there any group-buy style arrangements to pressure the retailers to offer a better than woeful FIT?

Cheers,
Mike

Home & Garden

Comments

  • mskeggs on 23/04/2014 - 21:46
    +1

    Best plan for you will depend on your usage.
    It used to be the case you could specify a different FIT provider and retailer. I don't believe there is any obstacle to this still happening, but as you have noted, all the providers are much less interested in solar these days.
    So it might be worth a call to AGL asking about whether you can separate your FIT and retail usage in future. If I were them, I would be trying to use their higher FIT as leverage for you to move the usage over.

    I'm not aware of any group buy style schemes.

    The bottom line, as far as I understand it, is the gov has dropped all FIT support, the grid owners are running a scare campaign saying the solar feed-in is requiring costly network upgrades, and I think as a result the retailers don't want much to do with small scale solar.

    • UnrealMacaw on 25/04/2014 - 14:00

      mskeggs, thanks for the idea on AGL, and I think you are right about the state of the industry. I'll keep my eye out for any group-buy schemes in the future - seems like a fairly powerful buyers group.

  • rmamila on 01/05/2014 - 14:46

    Electricity retailers can only pay 5c for a kW generated by our solar system during the peak hours but can they charge well over 30c for a kW we buy from them during the same peak hours. This is in addition to their hefty service fee which was ever going up in a rapid rate for past 5-6 years. This business seems to be a lawless area where Government hardly do anything.

    After being with Red energy for past 6 years for Gas supply, I moved to a different supplier last month. When I joined they offered me a 2 year contract and were very nice to give me a guarantee that "They would only increase their Gas rates upto 9% a year". I am not sure if I should be happy now as my Gas prices are locked for maximum 18% increase when I know for sure that my salary would not grow more than 4% for next 2 years no matter how hard I work. I know that the gas prices were going up crazily for past 5 years. Everything else was going up in such a rapid rate except the salaries. Being with same employer for last 5+ years my salary went up less than 2% on average for these 5 years. That's when I was performing well for every year and being in a specialized skilled job with many years of disciplined studies for couple decades to get the job.

    I am wondering how everybody else who do jobs can manage in this situation unless you do a business and provide a service that you can increase the charges at your will. Even my hair dresser increased her charges by 20% from this Jan saying that everything else is going up.

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