This means that if you currently receive either the 60 cent or 20 cent Feed-in Tariff, from January 2017 onwards, you will notice a significant increase in your monthly or quarterly electricity bill.  

There are a couple of actions that you should think about to reduce the impact on your finances.

The most important thing is that your electricity meter needs to be changed.  

Currently your meter is called a “gross” meter.  It measures all of the solar energy generated going out to the grid, and you get paid for it at the FiT rate.

You need your meter to be changed to a “net” meter. 

Once you have your new net meter, the other thing that you need to do is to try to use as much energy during the day as possible, and the least at night when you have to purchase it from the retailer.  

This will allow you to use as much as you can of your generated solar energy within the house during the day, with only the excess being sent to the grid.  

You will receive only 5-7 cents per unit for this energy, or nothing.  

If you don’t change your meter, you will receive nothing for any excess energy, which is a bad outcome all round.

So if your retailer is offering to swap your meter, you should consider doing so. 

If they aren’t talking to you about it, you need to talk to them!

The costs of changing the meter are estimated to range from $300-$600.  

A major problem is that there are only so many qualified electricians who can swap meters, and they are rapidly being booked up to make the change before the end of the year. 

 There may also be a shortage of net meters, so there is no reason to delay – contact your retailer as soon as possible and start the discussion.

Clean Energy For Eternity (CEFE) is very keen to support you through this period as the Solar Bonus Scheme comes to an end.  

CEFE is looking at the possibility of further bulk-buys to expand current systems – so you can use more of your own electricity during the day – and eventually at battery storage systems.

Peter Gorton