DIY solar system - how to sell electricity to PEA

[4myr]

Would like to share some info/experience on how to get hold of a Power Purchase Agreement [PPA] with PEA to sell electricity to them.

 

The online system is called Power Producer Information System [PPIM] and one of the programs is to buy electricity from small households.

Hope this helps. Will keep you posted on the progress. If you are familiar with this program, please share.

========

 

A few years ago I installed a small DIY on-grid system [ 3.3kw inverter, 2,000 Wp panels ].

As my production was equal to what I used, I did not bother to look into the details how to make a contract to sell electricity to PEA. 

 

This month I extended the system to the full capacity of the inverter. On a normal sunny day I can export/sell around 10kwh per day.

With the current 2.2 baht / kwh price and a contract of 10 years I can earn max around 70,000 baht.

 

After some searching I found on the PEA site the online process to submit a request to have a PEA selling contract.

It is called PPIM for rooftop solar households, type 1 residential.

Please check your PEA invoice, column Type, if you can apply.

Fee to submit the request is 2,000 baht excl VAT.

 

After scrolling thru the online form I learned that I cannot do it on my own.

I need a certified engineer that will sign off the electrical diagram [Single Line Diagram] of the system.

 

So I called a few installation companies in Prachuap, where I live.

One gave a quote of 15,000 baht + 2,500 baht extra, because they did not install my system. 

 

After providing them some pictures of the combiner box I had a call with sales.

Success rate of a PEA selling contract is 100%. No rejections sofar. However I would be their first DIY customer.

Wait time PEA for the whole process is 3 to 6 months.

 

A few weeks ago, a company from Ayuthaya installed a solar system at my neighbour's roof.

I managed to ask the onsite engineer to check my combiner box.

 

After 20 minutes checking he said: AC circuit breaker of inverter in main panel should be 32A instead of 16A.

And the earth/ground cable should be black color instead of yellow/green.

Hmm. I thought that yellow/green was the international standard for ground.

 

Accidentally my Thai wife found an engineer thru her friend. He also happen to live in the same town in Prachuap.

He came to see the system. He also explained the request process, as he also installs solar systems.

 

Nothing wrong with my system! No changes needed. What a relief.

 

After submitting the form with many attachments e.g. SLD diagram, PEA will take 45 days to come with an answer.

For Prachuap customers the process is centralized at PEA Phetchaburi.

 

Progress of status of the request can be checked online.

If approved for the next step, print out the online documents and pay the fee of 2,000 baht at your PEA office.

 

PEA will make an appointment for inspection of around 3 hours.

They will check the combiner box, main house panel, inverter and the earth bonding stick into the soil.

They will not go to the roof to check the grounding of the panels.

 

After PEA inspection, it takes an additional 30 days before final approval can be expected and that the selling/export is registered by PEA systems.

So a total of around 3-4 months. The engineer also told me that there is no waiting queue for export meters in Prachuap.

 

The best part came at the end. He will not charge us anything, except for expenses. As long as we can do some marketing about his solar installation business.

[Dan O]

Didn't they just announce in the last couple days they shut the solar purchase program down or will quite shortly for new applicants due to safety reasons? The article was in bankkok post this week

[MrJ2U]

1 hour ago, 4myr said:

Would like to share some info/experience on how to get hold of a Power Purchase Agreement [PPA] with PEA to sell electricity to them.

 

The online system is called Power Producer Information System [PPIM] and one of the programs is to buy electricity from small households.

Hope this helps. Will keep you posted on the progress. If you are familiar with this program, please share.

========

 

A few years ago I installed a small DIY on-grid system [ 3.3kw inverter, 2,000 Wp panels ].

As my production was equal to what I used, I did not bother to look into the details how to make a contract to sell electricity to PEA. 

 

This month I extended the system to the full capacity of the inverter. On a normal sunny day I can export/sell around 10kwh per day.

With the current 2.2 baht / kwh price and a contract of 10 years I can earn max around 70,000 baht.

 

After some searching I found on the PEA site the online process to submit a request to have a PEA selling contract.

It is called PPIM for rooftop solar households, type 1 residential.

Please check your PEA invoice, column Type, if you can apply.

Fee to submit the request is 2,000 baht excl VAT.

 

After scrolling thru the online form I learned that I cannot do it on my own.

I need a certified engineer that will sign off the electrical diagram [Single Line Diagram] of the system.

 

So I called a few installation companies in Prachuap, where I live.

One gave a quote of 15,000 baht + 2,500 baht extra, because they did not install my system. 

 

After providing them some pictures of the combiner box I had a call with sales.

Success rate of a PEA selling contract is 100%. No rejections sofar. However I would be their first DIY customer.

Wait time PEA for the whole process is 3 to 6 months.

 

A few weeks ago, a company from Ayuthaya installed a solar system at my neighbour's roof.

I managed to ask the onsite engineer to check my combiner box.

 

After 20 minutes checking he said: AC circuit breaker of inverter in main panel should be 32A instead of 16A.

And the earth/ground cable should be black color instead of yellow/green.

Hmm. I thought that yellow/green was the international standard for ground.

 

Accidentally my Thai wife found an engineer thru her friend. He also happen to live in the same town in Prachuap.

He came to see the system. He also explained the request process, as he also installs solar systems.

 

Nothing wrong with my system! No changes needed. What a relief.

 

After submitting the form with many attachments e.g. SLD diagram, PEA will take 45 days to come with an answer.

For Prachuap customers the process is centralized at PEA Phetchaburi.

 

Progress of status of the request can be checked online.

If approved for the next step, print out the online documents and pay the fee of 2,000 baht at your PEA office.

 

PEA will make an appointment for inspection of around 3 hours.

They will check the combiner box, main house panel, inverter and the earth bonding stick into the soil.

They will not go to the roof to check the grounding of the panels.

 

After PEA inspection, it takes an additional 30 days before final approval can be expected and that the selling/export is registered by PEA systems.

So a total of around 3-4 months. The engineer also told me that there is no waiting queue for export meters in Prachuap.

 

The best part came at the end. He will not charge us anything, except for expenses. As long as we can do some marketing about his solar installation business.

Are you running a few air conditioners?  I think that's our biggest expense along with our pool pump.

 

I'm kicking myself for not installing solar! 

[Crossy]

Let's pop this over to the Alternative Energy forum.

 

Good news that you've managed to at least start the process with a DIY system, the acid test will be actually getting your export meter, at least one member has been waiting years for his (On a professionally installed and approved system)!

 

Shelling out around 20k for approval to sell at 2.2Baht per unit, so you need to sell 9,000 units to break even on the approval cost. If you are really over-producing by 10kWh per day that's 900 days or 2.5 years.

 

Do keep us informed how things pan out and good luck! ???? 

[4myr]

Last week the engineer submitted the form.

 

I sent him the specs of the panels as cropped from the Lazada shop's website, as I could not find the data sheet from the manufacturer. But these were heavily pixelated, although still very readable. The engineer was a bit concerned that PEA would reject these, so he spend some time in looking for better quality pdfs.

 

As he was planning to drop by at PEA Phetchaburi later during the 45 day wait period, he was also not very concerned.

 

The status of the form as Google translated is now a bit confusing:
1) waiting for payment [have to pay after approval of 1st step] and

2) waiting for processing of documents [by PEA]

 

I' ll update you again after the visit to Phetchaburi or around 1st Sept

[4myr]

after 3 corrections of the document, we finally got a go to sign the contract with PEA.

 

after each rejection we got an email with details how to correct it. it took a while (more than 3 months) because the engineer was not all the time available and we did not see the rejection email on time. Pea always gave a reply within 1-2 welds after submitting the (corrected) document.

 

 after signing and paying the 2140 baht fee, an appointment will be made for inspection. i’ll keep you updated.

 

btw our neighbor who hired a installation company from bangkok got the contract within 6 weeks. what surprised me that they did not replace the analog meter. only that the analog meter is connected to the huawei 5kw inverter. 

 

 

[Crossy]

The wheels grind oh so slowly ...

 

Your neighbour still hasn't got his "sell" meter (unless he has a two-dial analogue unit). Hope he doesn't get caught out spinning it backwards.

 

Despite having everything in place and "approved" for an export meter @Thaifish got caught out by the meter reader and had a no-reverse meter installed. AFAIK he still hasn't got his export meter

[Thaifish]

This is right up my ally with info I need.... I have been banging my head against the wall with PEA trying to sell excess solar on my 10Kw system. Ive had a Smart Meter finally installed 6 weeks ago. Burriram PEA now saying can only export to 3 phase power lines. My system is single phase. Told to contact Bangkok PEA for advise through their web site. Ran out of steam after trying to send them an e-mail 3 times and the web page just said unavailable at this time!!! @4myr is your system single phase? @Crossy thanks for mentioning me now I have found this thread. Time for the Issan Luv Machine to get on the phone. I'm exporting around 30Kwh each day now with blue sky's and no air-con running.

[007 RED]

@4myr  May I firstly wish you the very best of luck with your endeavours to get approval to become a Small Power Producer (SPP) and to get paid by your local PEA for feeding back your surplus power to them.  From what other members of the forum who have tried to get approval have enlightened us, it is no mean task.

 

OK, my reason for posting the comments below is because of your aspiration that feeding back 10 units/day, at a payback rate of 2.2 THB, will give you a return of 70,000 THB over 10 years.

 

I’m sorry to say it, but if you do get approval to become a SPP, I don’t think that you are going to get anywhere near the return of 70,000 THB within the 10 years that you are hoping for.  I think that you will be extremely lucky if you get about half that amount assuming that the feedback rate (2.2 THB/unit) remains the same.

 

Why only half your anticipated figure?

 

At present with a normal meter the monthly 'Service Charge' (sometimes referred to as a Standing or Connection charge) which is  shown on your monthly bill can be 8.19 THB/month, or  24.62 THB/month, depending upon how many units you purchase a month from the PEA.

 

What you may not be aware of is that the moment you get SPP approval, and your local PEA installs your wonderful new feedback meter, they (the PEA) will up your monthly ‘Service Charge’ considerably . 

 

I recall that another member, quite some time ago, who went down the same route as you was horrified when he discovered the new ‘Service Charge’ for feeding his surplus back to his local PEA.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember the figure that he quoted, and I can’t find any reference to this particular charge on any of the PEA websites.

 

But as an example:

 

If the ‘Service Charge’ for a feedback meter is the same as the charge for Time Of Use (TOU) meter, which is currently 312 THB/month, then at the current rate of 2.2 THB/unit feedback, you will need to feedback approximately 141 units each month, just to pay for the new ‘Service Charge’.

 

Hence, based upon your anticipated feedback of 10 units/day for a 30 day month, this will give a feedback of 300 units/month.  If you need to produce at least 141 units/month to cover the cost of the ‘Service Charge’, you will in fact only be getting 159 units, which at  2.2 THB will only give you a payback of 350 THB/month from your local PEA, which is unfortunately half of what you are expecting.

 

I would seriously recommend that you double check with your PEA how much the ‘Service Charge’ will be if you get SPP approval.  I hope for your sake that I'm wrong.

 

I appreciate from your comments above that you have already submitted forms for approval to your local PEA, but please be mindful that giving to much information to your them will tip them off that you may well be running an unapproved DIY solar system, and this could lead to them making an unannounced visit to monitor your meter (spinning backwards).  So be cautious.

 

As I said at the beginning, best of luck with your project.

Edited November 24, 2023 by 007 RED
typo

[4myr]

Well, almost 5 months after signing the PEA contract end of Nov last year, still no change in the situation. Our neighbour who hired an installer got his first electricity sale within 5 weeks.

 

So we called the guy we met in Petchaburi when we signed the contract in Nov. He checked our queue number. He said that it will take another 1 month and 1 week before the contract will come back to his desk, after the different departments has signed off on our contract. Then a few weeks will pass before we get a final inspection of our solar system. So we should expect end of May that the contract can start.

 

He also said that PEA has 270 days after signing the contract to finish the backoffice procedures. It never happen that they cross past these 270 days. Also he said, fortunately the 10 year duration of the contract will commence after the backoffice procedures finished, and not after signing the contract.

Edited April 19 by 4myr

[GammaGlobulin]

On 7/16/2023 at 5:41 AM, Crossy said:

Let's pop this over to the Alternative Energy forum.

 

Good news that you've managed to at least start the process with a DIY system, the acid test will be actually getting your export meter, at least one member has been waiting years for his (On a professionally installed and approved system)!

 

Shelling out around 20k for approval to sell at 2.2Baht per unit, so you need to sell 9,000 units to break even on the approval cost. If you are really over-producing by 10kWh per day that's 900 days or 2.5 years.

 

Do keep us informed how things pan out and good luck! ???? 

 

In my view, at this point in time, and due to the approval processes, it almost seems like SHEER STUPIDITY to waste time on the process to sell to the power company.

 

At least, sheer stupidity, compared to selling the electric power to a neighbor for Bt.3.0 per kWh.

 

Or, why not just offer to recharge your neighbors' EVs for Bt.3.0 per kWh?

Seems easier and more profitable,...

At least, to me it does.

 

Maybe I have not yet thought this through, however...

 

(Why does one need the power company to act as a middleman? Nobody likes to pay commissions.)