Yes I have solar PV and a had a SMETS2 smart meter courtesy of SSE installed a couple of weeks ago.
It happily tells me how much I have imported and exported.

I am now in the process of moving to Octopus though.

 

ha, SMETS3!

Both SMETS1 and SMETS2 work fine with Solar PV. They record import and export separately.

 

We have smets1 and solar with octopus energy. The display goes negative when exporting telling us to switch stuff on. Octopus also have a solar tarrif which intend to switch to

 

I've decided to wait until SMETS2 becomes more stable and established before taking the plunge, as is my utility provider it seems! (Edit - Whilst I do not have Solar PV or an EV yet, they are on the roadmap for me)

I'm using an Open Energy Monitor setup and that has a CT clamp and an AC voltage adaptor used to measure the line voltage. A CT clamp alone has to make the assumption your voltage is 230v, whereas in reality, your line voltage will be vary quite a bit potentially (see the voltage graph top right over the course of 24 hours) - and is allowed to vary from 216v to 253v! As the voltage varies, if it's not taken into account, the energy monitor will be out by a few percent. P=IV (watts = amps x volts)

OEM can also read the optical flashing light pulse from an existing meter. I compare the pulse count to my CT reading, so I know my CT clamp and electricity meter pretty much agree with each other.

Pulse count per day bar graph bottom left, CT clamp usage per day bar graph bottom right. Variations on this will be either reactive power (current drawn out of phase with the voltage) or calibration of my voltage monitoring is slightly out.

Overall pros and cons.
OEM - very flexible in its abilities to analyse usage data and can be set up quite accurately. Not the cheapest bit of kit but good for the tinkerer. Can integrate with OpenEVSE and solar diversion.
SMETS2 meter - simple, what you see is what you're gonna be billed for. Getting detailed data may be difficult, depending on your supplier. Smart Metering is still an immature technology too. Many online tales of woe as people change provider and their smart meter becomes dumb again.

Yes - I am using a lot of 'leccy, its the Air Con running!. No, I don't work for OEM, it's just a good bit of open source kit

 

I have Solar PV, a plugin car and an energy diverter that heats our hot water when there is surplus energy.

Since I get paid on the assumption that I export half of the energy I generate, the name of the game is to export as little as possible.

Eventually when I am forced to get a smart meter, I will be paid for what I actually export. So I propose to be among the last people in the country to get one.

For my own benefit I had an Elios4you box installed along with the solar PV and this analyses all my electric generation and mains use. That has educated us about our energy use and pushed us towards optimising it in the way that a smart meter is meant to.

 

Look at your contract, it does not change when you get a smart meter, so irrelevant.

 

We had a SMETS 2 'leccy and gas smart meters installed by Octopus last week. The 'leccy meter is working fine with my PV. The IHD even shows a pylon symbol to show when you are exporting to the grid. Just waiting to be switched to the GO tariff.

Oh, and our PV FIT is still with Ecotricity. Your electricity provider and FIT provider can be two different companies.

 

Perfect Roger, that sounds like just what I’m after! Will have to get in touch with Octopus and see if they can get me sorted if I join them.


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Yes that's right. Ivo do our FIT as they were our supplier when we had the PV installed. Changed supplier three times since then.

 

So rather than ring eon and be fobbed off again I booked an appointment online. I literally booked it yesterday lunchtime and they had an appointment today between 12-4pm.

The guy has just left and I now have SMETS2 smart meters and an in home display currently showing my export as the sun is shining!

I’m really pleased that I finally have an accurate display of my energy use and it will be a good way to check that the Zappi is doing what it’s supposed to be doing... whenever myenergi start shipping the Zappi 2 - but that’s another story!

Thanks for your input guys [emoji3]


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.... I now have SMETS2 smart meters ...

So, a question:
Can you read the meters from the display?

 

Unblocking second generation smart meters...

Octopus's SMETS2 programme in the Southern region may soon be gaining pace

octopus.energy

this is a fascinating read, the bit about the smet2 meters getting bricked as the test all the meters on the top layer of the pallet. bloody crackers.

 

That's useful to know!

When the type 2 meters are universal I might weaken and let them install one.

 

I have just signed up for Octopus Outgoing, I have also transferred my FIT to them I was given the option when transferring the FIT to retain the 50% deemed export, I have added a second PV system outside of my FIT so I am going to export the maximum.

Its actually potentially cheaper to export all power at 5.5p per kWh and then use Octopus Go to charge at 5 per kWh during the night. This would probably suit those out at work during the day too.

I see no real purpose in battery storage, you are better off oversizing the array and exporting more now that Octopus have such a great range of products.

 

I have a 5.7kwh array with 7kwh batteries and am on Octopus Go, you make a good point about buying back for less than export but remember that only applies between 12.30-4.30, I charge my i3 and top the batteries up for an hour (will increase as daily solar generation decreases) as I don’t want to be pulling power at 14p between sunset at 12.30 or 4.30 and sunrise.

Another thing the batteries do is remove the issues with clouds coming over when high loads are being consumed such as washing machine or dishwasher.

Agreed that octopus reduces the battery benefits but other than EV charging most people have limited use of electric between 12.30 and 4.30.

 

Just had my second attempt at a smets2 smart electric meter install today. This has taken almost 6 months since the first failed attempt where they left me with a dumb smet2 meter which couldnt phone home when i had a perfectly fine dual rate meter which was great for night time ev charging.

So today the chap who came to install was pretty switched on. Instead of ripping out the installed smet2 and starting again he attempted to reconnect it to the utility and he succeeded. The original in house display IHD that came with it wasn't pairing so he got another of the van and that worked fine too. Then he came to look at the gas meter which is still of the very dumb kind and told me that 2 weeks back octopus changed the gas meters that they are now installing and that the ones he had with him were not compatible with the meter I had (badly installed) 6ish months back. So given that the options were to decommission the electric meter he just got working and install a working compatible pair which apparently takes an hour to decommission and then some time to recommission the new one and the new one is slightly bigger and there is a good chance if wouldn't fit in the congested space on the board next to my consumer unit I opted for option 2 which was was leave the gas meter until octopus can source the ones that used to pair with my installed electric smart meter and thus not waste the working electric one I still have and a ton of my time plus the meter install chap's.

Upshot is now can see the net import on the IHD but annoying I can not see the export on the IHD only on the meter which I keep the access restricted to due to two small curious boys and you know potential electrocution hazards. Plus the readout on the actually meter is awful to read (dim and small) so now I have to tell my FIT supplier that they should change my 50% presumed export to smart export but its going to be a pain to double check it. It would have been good if the folk who designed these smart meter displays had actually thought about the folk who are generating as well as the typical importing consumers.

I have a raspberry pi logging my solar production to pvoutput.org and reporting it on a local webserver page on my network, this is before my consumption though.

I wonder if there is a webpage/api/app which will give me this data to make it easier to see this export data.

 

Plus the readout on the actually meter is awful to read (dim and small) so now I have to tell my FIT supplier that they should change my 50% presumed export to smart export but its going to be a pain to double check it. It would have been good if the folk who designed these smart meter displays had actually thought about the folk who are generating as well as the typical importing consumers.

Your tariff is on 50% presumed export and you do not have to change. You can move over to SEG. I think most folk just stay with the current tariff arrangements.
I am on Octopus Agile and Octopus do no associated SEG, best SEG seems to be So Energy, unless you are with Bulb or on Agile.

 

Yes, my display tells me little of use, other than to display current usage and the costs and usage this month. I can't even read the meter with it - hopeless. It even confuses usage with generation of the little graphs and incorrectly interchanges kW and kWh.

The meters work fine though, logging export perfectly well.

 

Sounds like you should switch suppliers😀

 

My supplier is currently trying to push a smart meter at me, but given they only offer one flat rate electricity tariff which is quite competitive already, there is no current financial incentive for me to switch to a Smart Meter. I get better data from my own logging equipment too and any replacement gas smart meter is unlikely to have a pulse output to monitor. I'm also happy to provide monthly readings to the utility company, so there is really no incentive for me to switch right now. I also watched this with great interest.

My dumb meter doesn't have a remote controlled contactor inside it like the Secure SMETs meter, so I can't be cut off from the supply accidentially. Not that the utility company would every try to cut me off deliberately, as we always pay our bills.