Day 330 August 21st (Day 186)

The Solar was connected to the grid on the 18th of August, 50 working days after they received the paperwork from us.

When I phoned them I was surprised to hear them telling me on the phone in a message that it would take 45 days, and when I phoned a couple of days later, that this had been changed to 48 days. Something just didn't add up.

I had a look again at the paper agreement sent to me in the mail entitled "Energex, Inverter Energy Systems. Connecting You Inverter Energy System to the ENERGEX Network."

On Page 6 of 11 it has a section entitled " How long does it take to connect my meter?"

It reads ...

ENERGEX has an obligation to have your metering upgraded or replaced within ten business days from receipt of all the relevant paper work, unless there are any discrepancies with the paperwork or an appointment has been arranged. We require the following paperwork:

* Signed Agreement (Form 1003)

* EWR (Form 2)

* A request from your electricity retailer known as Business to Business transaction (B2B)

Then I found out from this URL under the service guarantees, that there may be a $52 payment per day that they are late. I am not sure if this applies however to solar connections as I haven't been able to find any information on the internet about this.

Paperwork was received by them on the 9th of June 2011.  Ten days later makes it the 23rd of June. Connection was made on the 18th of August. 

So I have filed a GSL request with them here requesting payment for the 40 days they were late. (I did ask the person I spoke to at Energex about this. She took my name and number and said someone would return my call.  Not surprisingly I haven't heard anything...)

Oh..And the other interesting thing I found today was this:

The paperwork on Energex's web site has changed from the copy we received...

What we got: (Click on it to make it bigger)

What Energex are providing customers now: (Notice the 10 day period has vanished..and they are advertising 45 -48 days on the phone)

Day 324 - August 15th (Day180)

Well today it is 180 days since handover.  We have only 12 items for the maintenance guys to look at. All of them are relatively minor, with the exception of the water closet in the Ensuite. It seems they may have cut the pipe too low to the ground, casuing the occasional "splash" over. ..Well you get the drift...


I phoned Energex on Friday to see when they plan to get the Solar panels connected to the meter, such that the meter reads backwards when power is goping into the grid. I found out that they have 45 days from recieving the paperwork, to get it up and running. I also found out that they have moved this time frame out a little to 48 days recently due to the demand. Our time frame was 45 days.

Interestingly, when I phoned through to Energex, they told me that with the meter I currently have, I COULD HAVE SWITCHED THE PANELS ON FROM THE BEGGINING!!! Whilst the panels would not generate an income, they would have been paying for our day use electricity costs. Thanks! Anyway, I will wait until Thursday before phoning them again. I hope they are going to start to credit us as the ball is now in their court....

I had some timber left over from the deck and with some of the framing timber, I built two planter boxes. It took a days work to get them all together. I also got some white stones for the garden. I plan to use this around the side of the house to provide an area to park the trailer onto.

The neighbour is getting closer to completion. I reckon they are only around 6-7 weeks away from the finish of it. We might be able to get the fence up then... It's been sitting in the garage in the mean time.

Yesterday, the water mains that went into the property two doors up, popped off and started spraying water into the air. The council came out to fix it. Pity I didn't have a long enough hose. I would have collected the water and put in in the rainwater tank! (Which is almost empty... :-< )