New Solar PV and issues with Maximum Export Capacity - help..

rickyottobcfc

We recently got 11 new Solar PV panels installed with capacity of 4.78 KVA and choose not to go with battery for now. However, when we signed up to Microgeneration with our electricity provider, BGE, they have applied a Maximum Export Capacity on our account of 4.4KW per day (limiting max they will pay us for surplus generation to c. 81.3 cents) which seems crazy and not what we expected or were advised by our installer.

Having been directed to ESB networks they mentioned that all new residential customers since May 2023 have either a 6 KW or 11 KW MEC applied dependent on whether a single or 3 phase unit.

Can I just check if others have experienced this or are most able to sell back an unlimited amount of surplus generated energy to their provider from their residential solar PV? Thanks

dclifford

Might be worth moving this to the renewable energies section of the forum. Probaly get more chance of more relevant viewers.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058343481/new-solar-pv-and-issues-with-maximum-export-capacity-help

Best bet is the renewables form alright but it depends...have you got a smart meter? if you do then you will be paid for what you export but there are limits and you cant go over the theoretical size of your system eg if you have 4.78 kWp of Solar PV then obvioulsy you cant be seen to be exporting somthing like 10kW...

If you dont have a smart meter then you will only be paid an estimated amount based on some formual, which more than likley will be less that you actually exported. That saying Im sure there has been some change in the rules and you now need a smart meter to get any FIT payments.

In the renewable form they will be all over this for you.

the_amazing_raisin

The MEC will be determined by the maximum current the inverter can supply back to the grid. This will be stated on the NC6 form the electrician sent into ESB Networks, so worth checking with them on that

Your math doesn't quite check out. You're limited to 4.4kW of instant power, but you're paid per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of exported energy

So if you system was generating 4.4kW for 1 hour, you would export 4.4kWh assuming you don't self consume any energy

At the BGE export rate of 18.5c/kWh, that's 81.4c per hour, not per day

Now you probably won't be producing maximum power for the whole day. To give you an idea, my 6kWp system generated 28.19kWh last Saturday which was pretty sunny. It never actually got to 6kW though, maxed out on sunshine at 5.5kW.

Plus there were several breaks where it dropped down to anywhere from 0.5kW to 2kWh whenever a cloud rolled over

rickyottobcfc

Thanks everyone - will move this to energy forum. We have smart meter and I expected that the limit was per hour as opposed to daily but BGE state it is a daily limit...