How can you meet your obligations as an RCP manager?
When creating an RCP (Swiss collective system of energy self-consumption), you become the electricity provider for your tenants. Therefore, you must ensure the same service, with the same obligations, as an electricity distribution network operator (DNO). This is the counterpart through which you can sell your photovoltaic (PV) energy.
We detail here these obligations and how Climkit can assist you.
💡 For more information on RCPs, we recommend our previous article where we explain the numerous advantages of RCPs: click here to read
1. Consumption measurement and its implications
It is first mandatory to proceed with the measurement of electricity consumption, both individually for each housing unit and for common areas and collective equipment (heat pump, charging stations, etc.).
To perform this measurement, you need to:
- Make modifications to the electrical installation: this mainly involves installing individual meters in each housing unit, common areas, and on each collective equipment.
- Take readings of these meters. The readings must be frequent enough to illustrate the consumption at each meter adequately.
2. Billing and its implications
Let's start with the theme of the selling price of the electricity provided by the PV installation. It is the responsibility of the RCP manager to define it, knowing that the law allows them to charge up to 80% of the standard price that the consumer would pay if they were not in the RCP, including energy, transmission, and tax.
Regarding electricity from the grid, it is prohibited to take a margin when billing users. It must be invoiced at the same price.
Then comes the subject of the actual invoices. Invoices detailing the consumption of electricity from the PV installation and the grid must be sent to users (tenants or co-owners), clearly distinguishing between the two sources.
3. Electricity Supply
The RCP is obliged to ensure the electricity supply to its members. When the PV production is insufficient, it must therefore source from the GRD. Consequently, it is responsible for paying the GRD bills for the consumption of the entire group, as the RCP is the sole and unique customer of the DNO.
How Climkit Can Make Your Life Easier
For consumption measurement, we offer the supply of meters and all the equipment necessary for RCP management. For the installation of these devices, we work with a network of partner electricians that we make available to you. However, you are free to choose your installer.
Regarding meter readings, our systems perform them remotely every 15 minutes through our gateway connected to the internet, allowing, at each interval, to determine:
- PV panel production
- Electricity supplied by the grid
- Consumption of each apartment
- Consumption of common areas
- Consumption of each collective equipment
Note that we install equipment using the Modbus communication language. This is the most common language that allows the use of the greatest variety of brands, during new installations as well as when replacing a meter.
Once the entire installation is completed and operational, we can offer you the management service by reading the meters and making individual settlements.
We adopt the GRD rates identically to bill RCP members for grid electricity. We update the rates every year based on changes made by the GRD. We are also able to distinguish different DNO tariffs (for example, peak and off-peak rates), and our settlements naturally differentiate between what comes from the photovoltaic and what comes from the grid.
We offer two variants for RCP management:
- The first is to provide the RCP manager with a settlement in the form of a PDF file: one sheet per apartment describing what has been consumed from the photovoltaic and what has been consumed from the grid. The manager must then proceed with user billing and settle DNO bills.
- The second option is a complete solution. On one hand, we send invoices directly to consumers and collect payments. On the other hand, we settle DNO bills and make payment to the owner for their solar electricity supply.
A specialized partner like Climkit allows owners to precisely meet all these requirements and implement a PV installation with peace of mind.
Want to simplify your life? Click here for more information on Community, our RCP management offer.
About Climkit
Climkit has been promoting the production of photovoltaic electricity since the launch of its solution in 2017 for managing the self-consumption groups in Vevey (VD).
Since then, we have extended our offer to all forms of energy and consumption in a building: heat, cold, water, laundry, electric mobility, etc. We facilitate the management of your building thanks to our counting, billing, visualization and optimization tools. Active throughout Switzerland, we work with local professional companies for the design and installation of our products. We're also proud that our Community solution has been approved by the Solar Impulse Foundation.
Our entire team is available to assist you in your projects, as we support the 1500 RCPs who place their trust in us!