German court rules Senec dealer must refund cost of reduced-capacity home battery

Judges at Bielefeld Regional Court ruled the maximum 70% operating capacity of the home battery – while replacement lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) cells are awaited – is a material defect. Senec is appealing against the ruling.
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Bielefeld Regional Court, in Germany, has ordered a dealer of Senec residential batteries to refund the cost of one unit to a customer who was affected by the manufacturer reducing the operational rated capacity of the product, for safety reasons.

Senec, a subsidiary of German electric utility Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, has been replacing Home4, V3, and V2.1 battery products since March 2022, when three fires were reported in homes where the systems were fitted. The Leipzig-based manufacturer is replacing the units with LFP devices, which offer improved fire safety.

The affected batteries were initially switched off remotely by Senec before being reconfigured to run in a “conditioning mode” which ensures they can only operate at a maximum 70% of their rated capacity.

With the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court ruling, in September, a Senec customer was entitled to a “defect free” new energy storage unit from their Senec dealer, the Bielefeld court has ruled a similarly affected customer is entitled to a full refund because of the loss of capacity in their Senec product.

Legal firm Dr. Stoll & Sauer, which represented the plaintiff in Bielefeld, reported the decision in case 9 O 212/24, which was announced on January 23.

The judges said the capacity reduction of the Senec device was “a significant defect,” according to the law firm. That meant the plaintiff could withdraw from their purchase contract and the Senec dealer must repay the purchase price of €19,161.62 ($19,817.10), plus interest, in return for the return of the defective storage unit and an extension storage unit.

According to the law firm, the plaintiff had purchased a photovoltaic system with a “Senec.Home V3 hybrid duo” home storage system, as well as a wall box and additional storage from the dealer. Dr. Stoll & Sauer did not specify when the purchase was made. After Senec reduced the unit’s storage capacity to 70%, the plaintiff repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, asked the company to restore its original state. According to the ruling, goodwill payments offered by Senec were not sufficient.

Dr. Stoll & Sauer represents several Senec buyers in Germany and has already achieved comparable judgments before other regional courts .

A Senec spokeswoman told pv magazine: “We are aware of the judgment you mentioned and have already appealed against it so it is currently not legally binding.”

She added, “With regard to the field [battery] exchange, over 50% of the affected customers have already received new LFP modules or storage systems and we are confident that we will be able to complete the exchange by summer this year.”

Senec was hoping to be able to replace around 5,000 of the affected home storage systems per month by the end of last year, free of charge, and has estimated the cost of the operation will be in the mid-three-digit million euro range.

From pv magazine Deutschland.

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