This meter is a piece of hardware that is installed as part of your solar and or battery system. It is also often referred to as energy meter, net import export meter or even smart meter depending on the manufacturer.
The consumption meter is a customer-owned device, that allows your inverter to measure and monitor solar production, household consumption or import/exports. It reports this data to your solar or battery inverter.
How is this consumption meter different to Amber’s smart meter?
The consumption meter that is part of the solar and battery system differs from your grid connected smart meter that Amber and your local network rely on for billing. This smart meter records your imports and exports at the grid connection point and can’t look at what is happening inside the house. Learn more about Smart Meters here.
Importance for solar curtailment
To have load-following curtailment a consumption meter is required. When we direct your system to curtail (when the wholesale FiT is negative), we simply send a "start curtailing" command and it is the inverter that adjusts production to match your consumption. Without the meter the inverter cannot match your live consumption so solar production can only be switched on and off to avoid exports at these times.
If you don’t have a consumption meter but an eligible system, we can limit your solar with on/off curtailment that may at times shut off solar production completely. For sites with high usage, it could be worth it to retrofit a consumption meter to allow for load-following curtailment and consumption monitoring. Adding an Energy Meter can cost ~$200 + installation depending on the manufacturer.
How do I know that I have a consumption meter installed as part of my solar and battery system?
Your installer will be best place to advise you on this if you’re unsure. You can also go to your device app and check if your system is reporting production and consumption monitoring as per the below example from the mySolarEdge app.
What if I've had a consumption meter added to my system?
Please reach out to our team at smartshift@amber.com.au so we can adjust your curtailment type and switch you over to load-following curtailment.
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