Comment Generation vs Distribution, and sharing the costs (Score 1) 75
I put a solar roof on; started the process last summer, signed the papers by the end of September, about a 5 month delay from the local utility for permitting, completed in march. My bill has 3 parts: a fixed customer charge (~$20 per meter; I have 2), a delivery charge (about 7 cents per KWh), and a separate generation charge (also about 7 cents per KWh). I pay delivery and generation charges for every KWh that the utility sends me, so 14 cents per KWh, and if I generate more electricity than I'm using, I get a rebate on the generation charge.
This seems to me to be fair. It's as if I'm another electrical supplier, and for the energy I give back to the utility, I'm getting credits at the same rate as I'm paying. Which is, in theory, the wholesale rate for power.
Now I need to find a way to see in real time if I am sending electricity to the grid or taking electricity from it, and move as much of my shiftable consumption to times when I'm supplying, to avoid delivery charges.