Same thing happened to me. The new digital meters have two "channels" to measure and bill for power. Standard meters read power flow through either channel as "consumed" power, and will charge accordingly. That way, if a meter is turned over by a customer (in an attempt to un-use some of the registered power), the meter continues accumulating away.
"DRG" meters for use on grid-tied systems have been modified with one channel to read incoming, the other for back-fed power. If a standard meter is left in place when a grid-tied system is installed, all back-fed power will be billed as if it's consumed. Our local power company installed a non-DRG meter when they started swapping out mechanical meters for the digital models. Our utility bill more than doubled. I contacted the power company and they acknowledged their error. They replaced the meter and our bill went back to its usual range. They also credited us fully for the backfed power. Dan --- On Fri, 8/12/11, Glenn Burt <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Glenn Burt <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] mechanical vs. electronic kwh meter > To: "'RE-wrenches'" <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, August 12, 2011, 1:10 PM > We too have had this happen - customer didn't feel he had to wait for > utility approval, turned on the system after we left. His next bill came > & he tried to blame it on us... All the meters the utilities are replacing > here are electronic AMR style units. It has been a long time since I saw > a mechanical utility meter. > > -Glenn > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Jason > Szumlanski > Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 12:09 PM > To: RE-wrenches > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] mechanical vs. electronic kwh > meter > > That is absolutely true. We have a customer who sent in > his > interconnection agreement and assumed the meter would be > swapped. It never happened, the utility did not swap the meter, and > energy sold to the utility actually showed up as purchased energy. The > utility acknowledged the oversight in getting the meter swapped, > and they are working with the customer on an equitable resolution. > > That is definitely a reason consider keeping the system off > until the meter is swapped, but then you are relying on the customer > to go flip the switch once installed. > > Jason Szumlanski
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