The Greening of Gavin

Archives for July 2010

Feed-in Tariff Follies

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The never-ending saga of attempting to receive the Victorian Premium feed-in tariff continues.

On Friday, we receive the second electricity bill since having the co-gen smart meter installed.  The meter was installed on the 21st of January and I wrote about it in this post titled “I Have The Power… At Last“.  Looking back, I was a bit ambitious to think that it was all over and that it was smooth sailing ahead.

The previous bill that was issued in April had a feed-in tariff of 23.5 cents in lieu of the 66 cents per Kwh that was expected.  After all, I signed the agreement in December 2009 when the new Premium Feed-in Tariff was legislated. We were short a $250 credit!  Kim called up our electricity retailer who blamed the wholesaler and expected it to be rectified in the next bill with the appropriate feed-in tariff applied with a credit.  We let it slide for that quarter thinking that things would be fixed up for us.  How wrong was I.

As I mentioned above, the bill for this quarter (April-June) arrived Friday past, and the was still listed at 23.5 cents.  I nearly lost the plot!  Straight on the phone to the retailer who instantly pointed the finger at the wholesaler, but admitted that the new tariff of 66 cents should have been applied to the bill from the 6th of April.  I gave them a blast and asked for the bill to be reissued, which they agreed. 

However, when I challenged the cut-over date of 6th April, because I was led to believe that the new feed-in tariff would be applied two weeks from the installation date of the meter, fingers were pointed back at the wholesaler.  I asked for their phone number to sort things out.  I am beginning to believe that the retailer, Origin Energy, did not want to pay me the Premium tariff, or wanted to make it difficult for someone to actually apply and receive it!

Anyway, I called up my wholesaler, Powercor.  They confirmed that the meter was installed on the 21st of January, which I already knew because I was present at the installation, and that we should have received the new tariff about two weeks after installation.  They told me to ask Origin to raise a Service Order to investigate further.  All I wanted was the money that I believe that I am entitled to, which is about 6 weeks worth of feed-in tariff at the 66 cent rate.

So, I call back Origin, ask them to raise the Service Order to investigate, and let them know that if I do not get prompt resolution, I will take the matter up with the Energy Ombudsman as I have done so in the past.  Shaking in their boots, they asked me to wait for the 10 days that Powercor have to reply, and they should be able to resolve my issue.  I hope so, because quite frankly, is am pissed off with the whole affair.  Being an advocate of renewable energy, I try and promote it where ever I can, however the electricity companies just make it so difficult.  It should be bloody easy, and simple enough so that there is huge growth away from coal fired electricity generation.  But who am I kidding?  Both companies make swags of money burning coal, so why would they want to help the average Joe put renewables on their roof and become less dependent on their dirty electricity.  Just not enough incentive for them if you ask me. 

I will let you know how this folly pan out.

Butch the Wonder Dog

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Butch is 15 years old and in dog years that is 105 years old.  He is partly blind with cataracts forming over both eyes, partly deaf and can’t hear very well (except when you call him for dinner), and is becoming incontinent.  No surprise really given his age, but he can still give you a lick on the nose, loves a scratch under the chin, and trots around okay without too much trouble.  I call him our “Grumpy Teddy” because he looks like a toy teddy bear.

We had a bit of a scare concerning him this week.  On Sunday night, he coughed continuously all night, and there was not much we could do for him except stay up and calm him down.  We got into the local vet on Monday afternoon, and she said that his left lung was very constricted, and due to his age it could be a growth or cancer pressing against his lungs.  So we booked him in for an X-ray to see what was going on, but could not get in until today.  The vet gave us some antibiotics to give to him in case it was a chest infection.

Over the next few days we feared the worst, but the antibiotics had taken the edge off of his coughing.  He was still quite sprightly and moving around alright, and his appetite was not impaired in any way at all.  After all, we keep him around to dispose of some of our food waste, as well as the unconditional love he gives us of course.

So, today we took him to the vet again for the final prognosis.  Once the X-ray had been taken and developed, the vet called us in with a serious tone in her voice.  Firstly she showed us what a normal dogs chest should look like.  Fine we thought, fearing the worst. 

Then she showed us Butch’s X-ray.  It had lines all over where his lungs were.  She informed us that Butch has severe bronchitis, however he can be cured with a 3 week course of antibiotics.  She also told us that he does not have any growths or tumours and is still quite healthy for his age. 

Kim cried, I breathed a sigh of relief, and Ben gave Butch a pat on the head!  Crisis over, and back home with the dog.  When we arrived home, our other dog, Holly, gave Butch such an ear bashing for leaving her alone at home that Butch looked like a hen pecked husband down on his luck.  So funny, and thank goodness he is still with us and recovering well.  Even though he is not human, he is still my friend!

Kev’s Patch Revisited

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It has been a while since we had an update about this campaign, and thanks to Michael of Canberra, we finally have an outcome for Kev’s Patch.  I had admitted defeat in a previous post and mentioned that it was not a success. 

How very wrong was I!  Kev and Therese actually planted out a veggie patch at the Lodge, and to drive it home, they had chickens as well.  See these articles titled “If there’s dirt under the PMs fingernails, it’s because he’s going for growth” and “Lismore ‘chook tractor’ for Rudd“.   So cool, but I wonder what happened to the patch and the chooks when he and his family moved out of the Lodge last week.  I hope he took the chooks with him and that someone is watering the patch ready for the next PM to arrive.

In fact, it makes me look at the bloke in a whole new way.  Anyone who takes up growing their own food cannot be all that bad.  What upsets me the most is that I didn’t have the chance to send him a congratulations letter in the post before he got ousted by our new Prime Minister.


All I can say is that small actions work.  Many thanks to Darren and JulieG for working on the campaign with me and to everyone who wrote letters to the then Prime Minister.  It obviously influenced him in some small way to follow the growing groundswell of home vegetable gardeners.  Well done Kevin, Therese and kids.  I just wished you had have promoted the fact a little bit more and started it at the height of your popularity.  Other Australians just might have followed suit.  Such a wasted opportunity.