Donating excess solar feed-in credit to community members suffering power bill stress.

FrankAu
4 Replies 3822 Views

I have solar panels on my roof that are beginning to generate more power than our household generally uses (expect perhaps during mid winter).  As a consequence we are accumulating a modest credit balance on the monthly billing cycle.

 

Having just listened to a programme on the ABC radio where some (often pensioner) members of the community are suffering high levels of stress paying power bills ... to the extent that it can cause poverty in a first world country!  Most likely these customers will have not have capacity to install solar panels themselves.

 

I would like to suggest AGL facilitate a way that I can "pay it forward" by applying the credit against the bill of a pre-vetted (but undisclosed) customer that is suffering financial stress.

 

Thoughts?

4 Comments
David_AGL
AGL Community Manager
Status changed to: Good Idea, Vote!

I love this idea!

AndyC
Starter

I want to do the same thing for those affected by the recent floods and I'm sure there are others who would do this too....

 

Come on AGL let's do this!!

NeilC
Powerhouse

Sounds good but not practical.

Who will decide on who will get this.

 

What would the criteria be.

 

For instance, just because someone is a pensioner and has a high electricity bill do they deserve to get a reduced bill or are they people that just waste electricity  because they are not using it correctly.

 

The pensioner across the road from me has their AC on, the outside temp is 16C but it has got up to 20C today.

 

Two houses down they have a 150W sensor light that is stuck on, its been on for at least three months. So every day it consumes 3.5kWh, multiply that by 90 days and you get 324 kWh, say they pay $0.40 a kWh that's $129.60 before you even start paying for the rest of the electricity they use

 

I have offered to fix it for them (for free) but they have said no it's OK but, complain about their power bill, when they are down the pub playing the pokies.

 

If you want to give away money try Meals on Wheels, Red Cross, Salvo's or Vinnies, they vet the people who they help!

HoLeeFook
Semiconductor

Agree with NeilC