Maintaining your solar system

Undertaking regular maintenance will ensure your solar panel system is operating safely, correctly and efficiently. There are two main things you’ll need to do each year to maintain your solar panels and ensure your system is operates safely and effectively.

• Keep them clean by removing any build-up of dirt and grime (refer to the manufacturer’s guide)
• Follow the regular maintenance schedule that your installer provided

myEnergy lets you see how much energy your solar panels are exporting and how much energy you are consuming from the grid.

With myEnergy you can:

• View up to two years’ data on the usage trends in your home
• Identify ways to become more energy efficient by understanding where most of your electricity is used and when
• Save money by comparing offers from energy retailers using websites like Victorian Energy Compare.

Some customers have internet-connected solar systems. These customers are required to maintain an active internet connection so we can communicate with their solar inverter to remotely manage exports and generation.

On occasions, we may notify these customers that their solar exports could be impacted by testing or a loss of connectivity.

Planned testing

We conduct regular tests to confirm rooftop solar systems can respond to our signals.

Impacted customers will receive a notification via their preferred communication method two weeks before the planned test. This will advise:

• The week the test will be conducted
• The time window when the test will be conducted (typically between 10am-2pm)

Impacted customers’ power supply will not be interrupted during planned testing.

Loss of connectivity

When internet-connected rooftop solar systems lose their connection with our systems, affected customers are unable to export their excess generation to the grid.

If connectivity is not restored within seven days, we will send a notification advising that customers check and reestablish their internet connection.

If connectivity is not reestablished within a further seven days, we will send an additional notification to check and reestablish the internet connection.

For troubleshooting advice, see the 'solving grid export problems' section below.

We will send a confirmation when the connection is restored.

If your solar system is not exporting electricity to the grid, it could be for a number of reasons. The problems and solutions vary depending on when your solar system was installed.

If you need a licensed electrician we recommend searching by locations on the Energy Safe Victoria website.