Certificate of Electrical Safety

hubs1982 on 22/12/2021 - 00:12

Bought our property a few years ago with solar panels installed by the builder/previous owner.

Checked the smart meter and it is evident that we have never fed electricity back to the grid. Have no idea why the previous owner didn't get it connected. TBH not sure if we have actually used any electricity from the solar power system.

Called the retailer (United Energy) and distributor (Origin Energy) and they have suggested getting a sparkie to check and fill out the forms.

Dug around for a bit and it appears a Certificate of Electrical Safety is needed.
https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/renewable-energy/victorian-fee…

Would anyone have any idea what's the going rate for this please?

Thanks very much.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • Iwantthebestprice on 22/12/2021 - 00:56
    +2

    Origin is the retailer, united is the distributor. You would likely need a CES (certification of electrical safety) just to say the solar connection is safe to connect to the grid and the last sparky was not dodgy. He prop just forgot to fill the forms in.

  • websterp on 22/12/2021 - 06:27
    +1

    Perhaps try to find the original solar installer ( if you are lucky you would find thier contact labels stuck on the inverter) and get them to find a copy of the original CES or get them to reissue one for free as it is their own work whch they already got paid for.

  • geekcohen on 22/12/2021 - 06:32

    This should've been done by the installer to get it all certified and then submit the documentation. I didn't have to do a thing besides chase the installer to find out where things were at. They did all the documentation and everything to AusNet for me. Then one day, it was starting to fed in. I would follow what @websterp said and try to find the original installer. However, depending on the age of the system things might need to be changed to comply with today standards. When I was talking with my installer, they said that things can change within a week and they have to go back and update some systems because something changed before being certified.

    Also, it probably has been feeding in, but the meter hasn't been configured to measure it so you get credits back. So the distributor has been getting free energy from you! You haven't been getting back 10c or so per kWh.

    The excess energy has to go somewhere and my understanding is that it is fed back into the grid.

  • hubs1982 on 22/12/2021 - 07:42

    Thank you very much and I now have a much better idea as to what to do next.
    Cheers!

  • GordonD on 22/12/2021 - 09:29

    I would have thought that the authoritative check on whether you've ever been properly certified, authorised and credited for feeding power back into the grid would be your power bill. It will say. I'm surprised that someone would buy a house "a few years ago", and in that time not notice their electricity bills each quarter didn't mention any feed in credit.

    There are two scenarios. The first that the paperwork hasn't been done and inverter was never connected. And the second is that is disabled for some reason or is faulty. The OP probably needs someone with appropriate expertise to establish which it is.

  • hubs1982 on 22/12/2021 - 11:40

    Thank you and do agree that I have been too lazy to sort it out.

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