Powercor, the owner and operator of Victoria’s largest electricity distribution network (which includes Mount Alexander Shire and much of Macedon Ranges), has lowered its charges for reconfiguring standard meters for solar to $58 as from the start of 2016.
Prior to this, the average cost to customers in the Powercor region for getting their meter configured was around $300, depending on the mark-up charged by their electricity retailer. Now, the typical cost to customers is between $58 and $100 for a standard smart meter on a residential property.
Powercor, as the distributor, do not charge residential customers directly for this service. Instead the charge is passed to the household’s electricity retailer who may add a small admin fee, and then add the amount to the customer’s first bill once their solar PV system has gone live and is feeding in power to the grid.
The Hub Foundation checked out the situation with Powershop, one of the greener electricity retailers in Victoria and they confirmed that this is indeed the case. Powershop do not add any admin charge so for Powershop customers going solar, the cost of reconfiguring a meter for solar is now $58!
Note that some electricity retailers add an admin fee so it is always worth checking by calling your retailer.
Jo Kaptein, Project Officer at the Hub Foundation Castlemaine and organisers of the MASH solar bulk-buy says: “We understand from our installers that the reason why the price has dropped is most likely because Powercor no longer sends out an inspector to do something called an ‘anti-islanding’ test. We reckon this is great because the system already has to be inspected by an Independent Inspector; in many ways the separate Powercor inspection was a bit like doing the same job twice! Plus, this lower price of $58 brings Powercor more into line with the charge made for the same service by other network distributors, such as Jemena.”
Note: Jemena stated on Feb 10 2016: “Our proposed fee for a remote reconfiguration is ~$50. If a truck visit is required, the cost is substantially more to account for labour and scheduling. Note that these costs are passed through to the customer via their retail bill.”