Home  5  Books  5  GBEzine  5  News  5  HelpDesk  5  Register  5  GreenBuilding.co.uk
Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories



Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.
Buy individually or both books together. Delivery is free!


powered by Surfing Waves




Vanilla 1.0.3 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome to new Forum Visitors
 Join the forum now and benefit from discussions with thousands of other green building fans and discounts on Green Building Press publications: Apply now.




Renewable Energy: FiT Provider

Bottom of Page

1 to 15 of 15

  1.  
    • CommentAuthorjms452
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    We are hopefully having PV installed this week and I have spent the weekend reading through my current electricity supplier’s Fit info.

    I was annoyed to see that if I want to change electricity supplier in future I also need to transfer my FiT provider to the new company.

    http://www.npower.com/idc/groups/wcms_content/@wcms/@resi/documents/digitalassets/fit_information_booklet.pdf (p4).

    I will probably find that they aren’t the best deal when our already low usage drops and I would like to avoid reams of paperwork every time I want to change electricity company.

    I don’t really fancy transferring to utilities warehouse for a strings attached short term sweetener.

    I have spoken to good energy who I saw mentioned positively on other forums and they seemed helpful and don’t restrict me from changing electricity supplier but admitted it could take 9 weeks for me to get the cash after submitting meter reading! Is this normal?

    Any recommendations (you can whisper if you feel more comfortable).

    Thanks

    John
    • CommentAuthorSeret
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012 edited
     
    Good Energy are a damn sight better at handling FITs than most other energy companies: fully recommended. The delay between submitting meter readings and getting paid is because it all has to go through Ofgem.

    I switched from Npower to Good Energy a while back and would never go back. Prices are equivalent, but customer service is markedly better and they're 100% renewable, instead of just one of the big six dressing up their mandatory renewable obligation as a "green" supply.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    Your FiT handler need not be the same as your supplier.

    For example, we're using Ecotricity for the PV system on my kids' school even though the supplier is some complicated education-related bulk buyer.

    A third party FiT provider has to be asked nicely, but you certainly do not have to have FiTs and supply together, and if your supplier suggests otherwise then maybe you ask them politely how many of these cases of misinformation have already been escalated and if any of their colleagues has been fined or fired yet...

    Rgds

    Damon
    • CommentAuthorjms452
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    They've never stated that the supply and FiT must always be together - just that if I stop using them as my supplier they will decline to administer my FiT.

    Sounds like good energy have it.
  5.  
    The delay in receiving payment is because Good Energy don't pay up until they've received the money from Ofgem. They are up front about this. Pretty much all the complaints we get about FITs payments are about big six companies - and npower are up near the top of the list.
    • CommentAuthorwindy lamb
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    I thought that once they were your FIT supplier then they couldn't stop doing that if you went and got your electricity from somewhere else. They could only remove their export meter if you had one. Oh well, I must be wrong!

    I'm with SSE which where an absolute nightmare but were the only ones to give an export meter FOC (don't do that now) and did take 9 months to get the first FIT payment. They seem to have got organised now as the payments come through within 28 days of the meter reading.
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012 edited
     
    Posted By: YouGen-Cathy.........The delay in receiving payment is because Good Energy don't pay up until they've received the money from Ofgem.

    The skeptical side of my nature often wonders if the suppliers are working a scam here, a bit like the banks with their inbuilt cheque clearing delay.
    Here's how it could go; Customer puts in reading on time; Supplier forwards readings to Ofgem on time; Ofgem pay up on time; Supplier then delays payment to customer. Result,- supplier has the money sloshing around earning interest for as long as they delay, could be a continuous process, and a nice little earner. The only one inconvenienced is the customer and who cares about them, no sympathy, after all they are getting "something for nothing" or so many believe.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    Various of my interactions with Ofgem suggest not assuming conspiracy when cockup will suffice.

    Ecotricity FiT payment letters just arrived today for 17th March readings saying "subject to us receiving funds from Ofgem, we aim for your payment to be made by the end of May" ie 2 months from my read have passed without any funds in Ecotricity's maw, and it is hoping to get money to me within two weeks of getting that money itself by the looks of things.

    It's clear to me that the GoodGuys(TM) are not trying to milk this for interest, but are trying to DoTheRightThing(TM). Can't speak for the Big Six and their bean counters of course.

    So, shout at Ofgem. But join the queue: you'll see the pitchforks and blazing torches just up ahead...

    Rgds

    Damon
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    Windy: I don't think that anyone is *obliged* to handle your FiTs if not handling your supply, though they are allowed to.

    Rgds

    Damon
    • CommentAuthorRobinB
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2012
     
    We buy our electricity from OVO green tariff which suits our usage. They don't do FITs at all.
    We have signed up with Good Energy for FITS
    •  
      CommentAuthorted
    • CommentTimeMay 15th 2012
     
    The rules on electricity suppliers and FiTs contracts are very straight-forward - it's all laid out very precisely (one of the few things that is for FiTs) in the legislative documents.

    There are Mandatory FiT Licensee's who are those suppliers with more than 50,000 customers so covers all the Big6. Smaller companies (Good Energy, etc) can be a Voluntary FiT Licensee if they want to be.

    The Mandatory Licensees MUST offer a FiT contract to their own import customers, and they MUST offer a FiT contract to someone who is not an import customer of any other Mandatory Licensee. Additionally they CAN offer a FiT contract to anyone if they want to.

    The Voluntary Licensees MUST offer a FiT contract to their own import customers but only for systems up to 50kW. They CAN offer a FiT contract to anyone else if they want to.

    Anyone who is off-grid (so has no import contract) MUST be offered a FiT contract by a Mandatory Licensee.

    Some companies (EON I know for one) have operated outside these legislative requirements. Many Big6 companies don't seem to understand the rules very clearly.
    • CommentAuthordelboy
    • CommentTimeMay 15th 2012 edited
     
    Ted that answer seems very good.

    So looking at the original post question, are you saying that if John buys his energy from - say - Eon, that nPower is not obliged to offer him an FiT contract, because Eon is another mandatory licencee?

    Therefore as I understand it, John has 3 choices:

    1. He changes his import supplier to a voluntary licencee and has a FiT contract with nPower. The downside to this is that John is never able to switch import suppliers to a mandatory licencee without breaching his FiT contract with nPower.

    2. He imports from nPower and gets a FiT contract with nPower, but if he wishes to switch import supplier, his FiT contract only lets him switch to a voluntary supplier, ie not one of the big 6.

    3. He tells nPower to shove it and finds a different FiT contract without this tiresome stipulation.

    Options 1 and 2 are practically the same.

    Is this accurate?
    • CommentAuthorjms452
    • CommentTimeMay 15th 2012
     
    Given the ammount of effort in applying for FiT is practically the same regardless of whether they supply you electricity or not it has to be option 3. This leaves you/me free to change electricity supplier without an extra hastle factor.

    I can see all sorts of potential problems with changing FiT supplier (especially if the FiT rate had dropped in the mean time). Anything that is even vaguely unuseral can be horrendous with a big face-less company.
    •  
      CommentAuthorted
    • CommentTimeMay 15th 2012
     
    delboy your analysis is correct - except that suppliers are able to offer contracts outside the strict terms of what they are obliged to do plus, as I say, they sometimes only offer FiTs in conflict with their legal obligations as well.
  15.  
    jms452

    My choice would be 3 too.

    However, there shouldn't be problems with changing FIT supplier (although given the customer service record of some of the energy companies this isn't going to be a given) even if the rate has changed. Your installation is registered with Ofgem, and the rate will stay the same (+ index linked increases) for the full period of the FIT whoever your FIT supplier is.

    I recently commissioned Good Energy to write a blog about how to change FIT suppliers. It may be of some use: http://www.yougen.co.uk/blog-entry/1917/How+to+switch+your+feed-in+tariff+%2728FIT%2729+provider++/

1 to 15 of 15

  1.  
Add your comments

    Username Password
  • Format comments as
 
Back to Discussions Top of Page
   
The Ecobuilding Buzz
Site Map    |   Home    |   View Cart    |   Pressroom   |   Business   |   Links   
Logout    

© Green Building Press