Net Meter not Measuring Excess production

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  • idsom1
    Junior Member
    • Jun 2020
    • 3
    #1

    Net Meter not Measuring Excess production

    Hi Y'all,

    I have a question regarding my Itron c1s Net meter installed on a 4.68KW solar grid-tie project in Albuquerque. I designed and installed everything myself but had an electrician make the final AC connections. I had my new billing meter installed on January 8th and since then it has never counted down. My billing meter reading in November before the operation of my solar was on average 7KW from 6AM to 6PM and 39KW from 6PM to 6AM. From December 7th when my solar was operational my meter reading from 6AM to 6PM is on average between 0KW-1KW and 39KW from 6PM to 6AM, while my daily PV production is 19KW. That leads to my concern that my Billing meter is not measuring excess production from my solar installation. These measurements include Tuesday January 19th where because of snow my PV production was 0KW. My meter on Tuesday morning at 6AM read 520KW and at 6PM read 526KW, confirming that my usage during the day is still around 7KW. To confirm this issue I turned off all the breakers in my home except my fridge for 8 hours on Wednesday January 20th. My PV production as read by the PNM provided production meter was 21KW , and my usage would have been minimal, less than 1KW, but my billing meter did not reverse. I know its not a problem with my PV system as like a said the production meter is measuring PV generated power and matches what is displayed on the inverter, and I can see the billing meter flow backwards just not count backwards.

    Has anyone else had this problem, do you think its just a wrongly programmed meter? seems to me like it's set to instantaneous net metering, instead of 1-1 net metering.
    Tags: diy, inverter, solar, solar panel, solar panels
    • peakbagger
      Solar Fanatic
      • Jun 2010
      • 1565
      #2
      If you have single channel meter, then yes your meter is programmed incorrectly. It happens often. Be glad, many meters now are programmed to treat flow of power to the utility as usage not production so the person with an illegally hooked up solar system is actually paying the utility rate to put power into the grid.

      I had a single meter for several years that counted up and down The utility eventually swapped it out with dual channel unit that keeps track of production sold to the utility (that is net of any current household usage) and power bought from the utility. In my case the utility is desperate to bill a surcharge against production sent to the utility so they want to keep track of it but the state law does not allow them to.

        Comment

        • J.P.M.
          Solar Fanatic
          • Aug 2013
          • 14939
          #3
          I d be with Peakbagger on the meter. I'd Call PNM and have a chat.

          One add: I've done what you did on turning off power but did so to get an est. of my production meter vs. the POCO meter. Over 3 separate 14 day periods (vacations) I put a kill-a-watt meter on the fridge and unplugged the other stuff on that line and opens all the other circuit breakers and subtracted the kill-a-watt totals from the POCO meter.

          BTW, I lived in Albuquerque for several years off Coors, a couple miles south of the Intel plant. Sunniest and probably the prettiest place I've ever lived.

            Comment

            • PVAndy
              Solar Fanatic
              • Aug 2014
              • 230
              #4
              Originally posted by idsom1
              Hi Y'all,

              I have a question regarding my Itron c1s Net meter installed on a 4.68KW solar grid-tie project in Albuquerque. I designed and installed everything myself but had an electrician make the final AC connections. I had my new billing meter installed on January 8th and since then it has never counted down. My billing meter reading in November before the operation of my solar was on average 7KW from 6AM to 6PM and 39KW from 6PM to 6AM. From December 7th when my solar was operational my meter reading from 6AM to 6PM is on average between 0KW-1KW and 39KW from 6PM to 6AM, while my daily PV production is 19KW. That leads to my concern that my Billing meter is not measuring excess production from my solar installation. These measurements include Tuesday January 19th where because of snow my PV production was 0KW. My meter on Tuesday morning at 6AM read 520KW and at 6PM read 526KW, confirming that my usage during the day is still around 7KW. To confirm this issue I turned off all the breakers in my home except my fridge for 8 hours on Wednesday January 20th. My PV production as read by the PNM provided production meter was 21KW , and my usage would have been minimal, less than 1KW, but my billing meter did not reverse. I know its not a problem with my PV system as like a said the production meter is measuring PV generated power and matches what is displayed on the inverter, and I can see the billing meter flow backwards just not count backwards.

              Has anyone else had this problem, do you think its just a wrongly programmed meter? seems to me like it's set to instantaneous net metering, instead of 1-1 net metering.
              The Itron C1S is a smart meter with multiple channels and also an arrow that shows the direction of power flow. I'm not sure with your utility which channel is which. One will show power exported to the grid and another power purchased from the grid. Typical electric bills will show both reading and then net out the difference

              Andy

                Comment

                • idsom1
                  Junior Member
                  • Jun 2020
                  • 3
                  #5
                  Originally posted by PVAndy

                  The Itron C1S is a smart meter with multiple channels and also an arrow that shows the direction of power flow. I'm not sure with your utility which channel is which. One will show power exported to the grid and another power purchased from the grid. Typical electric bills will show both reading and then net out the difference

                  Andy
                  My meter shows direction of flow, but only show 1 channel showing, it has "NET" display which is why I think its supposed to count down. I orders a smart monitor and will install it soon, I'll use that info to chat with PNM once i have at least a week of data.

                    Comment

                    • Hutchinj
                      Junior Member
                      • Apr 2021
                      • 12
                      #6
                      Even with the exact same meter, it seems a myriad of ways they can be programmed by the various utility companies out there. I'm in Orlando (used to live in Los Alamos, NM) and our Itron C1S smart meter from Duke Energy provides two readings: 00 = # kWh drawn from the grid and 01 = # kWh fed back to the grid. Both are cumulative readings since the meter was installed.

                        Comment

                        • idsom1
                          Junior Member
                          • Jun 2020
                          • 3
                          #7
                          ***Update*** I finally got PNM to come check out the meter early this month. After 15 minutes of watching the meter flow backwards at 4kw and not count backwards, the tech agreed with me and offered to replace my meter. 5 minutes later it counted "down" to all 9's. 3000kw lost and 4 months later.

                            Comment

                            • PVAndy
                              Solar Fanatic
                              • Aug 2014
                              • 230
                              #8
                              Originally posted by idsom1
                              ***Update*** I finally got PNM to come check out the meter early this month. After 15 minutes of watching the meter flow backwards at 4kw and not count backwards, the tech agreed with me and offered to replace my meter. 5 minutes later it counted "down" to all 9's. 3000kw lost and 4 months later.
                              I would talk to the utility. We've have similar situations with an improperly installed meter and were able to get credit for the customers

                                Comment

                                • peakbagger
                                  Solar Fanatic
                                  • Jun 2010
                                  • 1565
                                  #9
                                  Thanks for the update, always nice to hear the solution. This seems to happen far too often. Twenty years ago when grid tied solar was curiosity I would have expected it but it should not these days.

                                    Comment

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