Solar panel owners have been urged to check their generation data, following a glitch that might see some of them deprived of income.
There has been a recent surge in the number of households installing solar panels in recent months, with many keen to cut their reliance on expensive fossil fuels.
ESB Networks has notified many solar panel owners that a technical error means their energy generation data is not being correctly displayed.
On Lunchtime Live, Irish Independent Personal Finance Editor Charlie Weston said the error relates to the sunniest period of the year.
“If you went on to the ESP Networks website and looked to see what your consumption is and what you would have exported to the grid, for a lot of people, there's no values being shown since May 25th for exports to the grid,” he explained.
“We've had some exceptional sunshine, probably the best sunshine this year - solar panels would have been working overtime.
“And this is the very period that people look to see what they've exported back to the grid - nothing is showing up on the ESB Networks website.”
Rooftop solar panels. Picture by: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo.For a number of solar panel owners, the amount of energy they have exported back to the grid - so-called micro-generation credits - is simply not showing up.
Mr Weston continued that this has left many people “concerned” that they’ve accumulated no micro-gen credits for the sunniest period of the year.
“ESB Networks are telling me this is a kind of technical issue,” he said.
“They are calling it an IT maintenance problem, that they do have the data, the smart meter data is there - it's just not displaying on the ESB Networks ‘My Consumption’ page.
“They're insisting this does not affect your billing or micro-gen data.”
The company has said it expects everything to be fully resolved by Monday.
However, Mr Weston said he had been alerted that some people who have had their data restored believe they are still missing micro-generation data on certain dates.
“By the time you get your bill, if it's still not properly displaying and you reckon there's a discrepancy there, I would just be ringing them,” he suggested.
The Government offers homeowners who install solar panels with a registered SEAI company a grant of €1,800.
Main image: A bungalow with solar panels on the roof. Picture by: Alamy.com.
