Solar Customers Not Entitled to Certain Energy Discounts

Gotchas on 11/07/2015 - 10:20
Last edited 11/07/2015 - 11:30 by 1 other user

Both AGL and Energy Australia exclude solar customers from receiving their higher rate of discounts available to everyone else.

An example of this:
http://www.agl.com.au/residential/energy-plans/electricity-a…

At the bottom is a link for solar customers that takes you to the different plans with more expensive pricing.

On what basis are they allowed to do this considering one makes an intial financial investment with associated risks while providing energy through an environmentally friendly way.

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  scrimshaw on 11/07/2015 - 10:25

  This has been the case for many years now. A normal non solar household can get between 10~18 percent usage discount with AGL but with solar you can probably negotiate around 7-10% at most.

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    Gotchas on 11/07/2015 - 13:20

    Thanks
    Just realised this when reading through some of the promotional material I received

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  pjetson on 11/07/2015 - 11:21

  On what basis are they allowed to do this

  Because they can? I'm not sure what you're asking. The goverment sets the rules, and there is no rule that says they can't.

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    Gotchas on 11/07/2015 - 13:25

    Just find it very strange how the media and ACCC haven't looked into these retailers for financially penalising people who support renewable energy instead of offering further discounts.
    It would be the same if water rates were higher for people who had rainwater tanks.

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  PVA on 11/07/2015 - 11:45

  they are private companies and can charge what they want - privatisation is great isn't it.

  The financial risks etc you made for solar or benefits to the environment doesn't involve them at all.
  They simply will make less money from someone with solar panels so will give you less discounts.

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  nocure on 11/07/2015 - 12:28

  Origin QLD.. 17% off tariff and .50c feed in.

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    Evil-Elmo on 11/07/2015 - 13:33

    How did you get 17% off tariff? The best I see around is 10-12%…

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      nocure on 11/07/2015 - 13:47

      threatened to leave… 15%-pay ontime disc , 2% Direct Debit disc

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  affable on 12/07/2015 - 09:22

  Try Red energy, especially if you have more revenue from Solar than your power bill, as recently EA etc only give the discount on your "net bill" which in our case means no discount with EA. My Solar produces about $1800/qtr (10kW @60c) and we only consume $500/qtr including charging 2 electric cars. RED was the best deal by far, been with them 2 or 3 qtrs so far and all good. I'm in NSW.

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    Gotchas on 12/07/2015 - 10:14

    Thanks
    Will look into it

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  woz on 12/07/2015 - 09:32

  -1

  In a couple of years, solar adopters will be screaming as the feed in tariffs get reduced time and time again. Those calculations you made at the start about how many years your panels would take to pay off aren't worth a pinch of shit now.

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    Gotchas on 12/07/2015 - 10:12

    My panels fully paid off within the first 2yrs.i was getting 68c intially. I take it you missed the boat.

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      woz on 12/07/2015 - 12:07

      +1

      You were one of the few lucky ones then that managed a decent tariff. Sincerely, congratulations. Yes, you are correct in that I missed the boat. I didn't have the capital to go solar having blown all my savings on a house at the time. However, that house is now 75 per cent mine, and my mortgage is under $500 a month, so high electricity bills aren't the end of the world.

      Not sure how the industry expects to sell new panels with the tariffs no longer anywhere near as generous as when they started.

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        affable on 12/07/2015 - 12:33

        +1

        There were 120,000 households who got the 60c GFIT in NSW, far from "one of the lucky ones"? Luck didn't play much part in it.
        I borrowed nearly $40k (via my home loan) for my 10kW, so far its returned $34k. Will be a free system by the end of 2016 including borrowing costs. Well worth the investment, apart from a few anxious moments when the NSW Gov tried to drop the 68c down to 40c.

        The PV industry is doing ok, just a different focus. You can still get great return if you can offset usage @30c rather than just get 6c from the grid. Commercial has payback around 6-7years.

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        Evil-Elmo on 13/07/2015 - 09:21

        Yep - mine have well and truly paid themselves off too. In QLD so no crazy generous FIT like NSW, but 44c on net export which, because I was in early, is locked and won't change (until we sell the house and a new contract is required). I just wish I'd installed a bigger system but, like you, we'd just bought our house so funds were limited.

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  [Deactivated] on 23/07/2015 - 13:21

  Not sure if loophole or intentional, the only way I found to get discount and solar is with DODO

  So far so good