3 Phase Smart Meters - South Wales

  • Rovarious's Avatar
    Level 4
    Are 3 phase, net consumption, smart meters being fitted in South Wales?

    The only post I could find was from about a year ago and didn't give a definitive answer.

    We have 3 phase solar so the meter would need to be capable of deducting export on 2 phases from import on the third for billing purposes (the other thread suggested this was required by regs but meters weren't capable yet)

    Has the situation changed?
  • 2 Replies

  • retrotecchie's Avatar
    Level 92
    @Rovarious

    To the best of my knowledge, the meters do exist but are industrial or commercial devices rather than rated for domestic use. What you are trying to achieve is probably something that only applies to less than a fraction of a percent of the consumer base for domestic customers so the demand for making that type of meter 'mainstream' is virtually non existent.

    The best solution is still two meters. Importing and exporting on a different number of phases and then doing the maths automatically is not an easy, or cheap, task for a single meter with a very limited market.

    Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. I DON'T work for or on behalf of EON.Next, but am willing to try and help if I can. Not on mains gas, mobile network or mains drainage. House heated almost entirely by baby dragons.
  • Rovarious's Avatar
    Level 4
    @retrotecchie, I'm not a great fan of Smart Meters but they are apparently necessary for some innovative tariffs for EV owners (not that EonNext offer similar tariffs at the moment). So I thought I would check the current status of 3 phase smart metering. Like you I believe the devices exist but whether EonNext are able/willing to install them is another matter...

    The Solar was installed in 2016 so I get 'paid' for generation and for deemed export (50% of generation) - Annually I am consuming 62% of my generation so the 50% deemed export works in my favour - a potential downside of smart metering might mean that the 'actual' export is used but I suspect that unless I move my FiT to the same person as my supplier the (dumb) generation meter and the utility meter wouldn't be associated.

    How do I know that I consume 62% of my generation...

    ... I have superb (5 second resolution) monitoring using a couple of IoTaWatts (www.iotawatt.com). Each IoTaWatt can monitor 14 circuits and upload the data into influxdb which grafana can then query give me a dashboard. The devices have onboard reporting/graphing but it is better suited to investigating work. If you are interested in power monitoring it is well worth checking out (open source hardware/software if you are good with a soldering iron) - I buy my units assembled and source the CT's, voltage reference transformers and power supplies locally.

    edit: typo