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There are fears some solar owners in NSW could be unable to pay their electricity bills because of a metering bungle that's leaving consumers out-of-pocket.
New analysis shows solar-powered households in NSW waiting for new smart meters to be installed could pay more than $500 extra for their electricity this year.
Surging complaints to the NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman have prompted calls for consumers to ask for credits to be added to their bills.
"Some people now are getting bills for energy they consumed in the heatwave in February, and soon they'll be getting cold weather bills coming in," Ombudsman Janine Young told the ABC.
"That can move a customer from being able to pay their electricity to going into financial hardship, so I'd be expecting that retailers would be offering to backdate feed in tariffs."
Why are residents out of pocket?
More than 275,000 households were affected when generous government solar tariffs stopped in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria last year.
Under the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme, 146,000 households received 60 cents for each kilowatt hour of energy fed into the grid, designed to offset expensive panels and encourage solar uptake.
The payment was much higher than similar schemes that ended in Victoria (25 cents per kilowatt hour) and South Australia (16 cents per kilowatt hour).
After the schemes ended, households were supposed to receive the market rate of between 6 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour to feed into the grid.
To get the best value out of their panels, most people in NSW needed new meters installed by the time the scheme ended on December 31.
But thousands of people have been left waiting for months for the new devices due to issues such as connectivity, old wiring in some homes and a lack of skilled technicians to install the meters.
Complaints about meters to the Ombudsman rose dramatically in March and April, and May figures are on track to spike even further.
"It's the highest growing level of complaints for us," Ms Young said.
"Back in July [last year] we were getting one or two a week, we're now getting 13 a day and that's from 10 a day in March.
"So it certainly is becoming a big piece of our work, in fact it's in the top five issues if we look at delays in installations."
The Ombudsman said she did not have exact figures on how many households were still waiting, but it's believed to be in the thousands.
Why it pays to have a smart meter
Smart meters — also called net meters or "advanced digital meters" — measure how much solar-generated energy a house is using and how much is being fed into the grid.
They can record electricity use every 30 minutes, with the data sent back to retailers.
Without new meters, the affected households are now pumping energy into the grid and receiving between 6 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour, only to buy have to buy it back at a higher price.
The Solar Bonus Scheme paid early solar-adopters lucrative feed-in tariffs for the energy generated by rooftop solar when panels were far more expensive than they are today.
Delays costing customers over $500 per year
Energy start-up Solar Analytics, which has developed software to monitor energy use, has mapped data from 1,449 of the affected rooftop solar customers from January to May.
Solar Analytics chief executive Stefan Jarnason is also waiting on a smart meter.
"We've determined for the average person, it's costing them over $500 a year in lost revenue," Mr Jarnason said.
"The financial impact for our customers in NSW is quite significant, the average amount they've lost so far this year is $250."
The ABC asked all the major retailers in NSW — AGL, Origin and Energy Australia — what had caused the delays.
A spokesman for Origin said the company was "working hard to safely complete digital meter installations" at no cost to consumers.
"We have completed the largest number of successful solar bonus scheme meter installations in NSW," the spokesman said.
"We're keeping in touch with customers where there's been an issue preventing us from completing the digital meter installation in the timeframe advised, such as access issues, lack of mobile communication coverage or at properties with wiring issues."
A spokesman for Energy Australia said some NSW customers had been offered $40 monthly credit if they signed up to its "solar booster range" by March 31 and had not had their meter installed.
"We understand customers are anxious about the impact delays may have on their ability to benefit from their solar systems," the spokesman said.
"We're prioritising any work to do with making sure customers are properly set up for the new arrangements.
"As customers sign up, we're scheduling when they'll receive their new meter with the aim of having these installed within 30 business days."
AGL said in a statement it had installed thousands of new meters for the "majority" of its customers.
"Where some customer sites require more work, such as removal of asbestos or upgrading of wiring, we have connected customers with local electricians to whom we can then supply a meter," it said.
Topics: solar-energy, electricity-energy-and-utilities, energy, environment, australia, nsw