Energy Matters Forums

[Procon]

Has anyone had an issue receiving some form of benefit (Contract price discount/REC/SSTCs etc.,) regarding their PV solar installation that could throw some light on the matter?
As part of our new house building project in 2012 I drew up a specification for the electrical contract to wire up and commission our 3kW PV system. It was clearly spelled out that we would free issue the PV panels, their ground mounted support structure and the inverter to the winning contractor. To my shame however the specification made no mention of the Government rebate and what we expected, so during the installation we asked the selected electrical contractor what we needed to do. His reply was that he would apply for that on our behalf.
The unit was commissioned around April 2013 and since then we have been asking the contractor questions as to the progress of the rebate application by email, phone, face to face and registered letter, without success.
We have applied to the Clean Energy Council, Clean Energy Regulator, ACCC, Dept. of fair Trading and the Ombudsman since and they all seem to consider this issue not their responsibility to handle such an enquiry or in the case of Dept Fair Trading who were satisfied with the contractor’s explanation, which in no way gels with us. We have however, through FOI patronage, learned that 57 REC Certificates relating to our PV unit were created in the name of an Australian company on 14th Nov 2013. We wrote to the company in question by registered letter 26th Sept 2016 asking as to our status in relation to any benefit and have as yet received a reply.
The electrical contract price was not discounted as an offset. Neither my wife nor I were signatory to any of the three compulsory written REC application statements CER-RET-014, 015 and 016 required. We would prefer not to involve lawyers in this matter if at all possible. But we would like some answers as to how this situation could have happened and if other RE unit owners are/were in the same situation.
Any constructive suggestions would be gratefully received.

[jaahn]

Hi Procon
I have no knowledge on this subject but I came across this article/advertisment while looking for other information. I thought it might be useful to you or others to understand the system.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/solarreb ... rrebatepl1
Jaahn

[Procon]

Many thanks Jaahn. That's grist to the mill indeed. The argument that it was us, the customer that 'designed' the system rather than an accredited Clean Energy Council professional has interestingly never been raised in the Council's responses to us but as the STCs have been issued to a third party anyway that criteria did not seem to apply in our case.

Kind regards
Mike