We create power during the day. If we create more than we use the utility company takes it and sells it to our neighbor and gives us an equal credit - we send 1 kwh to our neighbor and we get a 1 kwh credit for later. At the end of the month we pay the customer fee, extra solar net metering fee, and we purchase any energy that we needed beyond what we created. If we created more than we used the credit for that energy rolls over to the next month. If at the end of the year we still have unused credit then they will even our bill by purchasing the extra power at a rate slightly less than wholesale. You really do not want that because it costs more than that to create, so you try to break even (not counting fees, which you will always pay) as closely as possible.
From what I can tell they are trying to find a cheap way to get power at the expense of the solar customers. Say you pay $0.12 per kwh - they are buying that for $0.08 and selling it back to you. They negotiate how much they pay with big power companies. They are proposing that they have to pay as low as $0.02 per kwh to the solar customers, who couldn't negotiate like the big companies. So, instead of giving you equal credit they will give you $0.02 on you bill then turn around and sell it back to you for $0.12. So to break even you would have to produce enough for you and 5 of your neighbors instead of just you. And still pay the solar and customer fees. And what they were paying $0.08 for they want to give you $0.02 for. It costs 10-15 years worth of energy bills to get solar so needing a system that is 6 times larger will kill it.
For the arguments that the solar customers shouldn't get even credit for what they produce... There is little to no line loss going to a neighbors house unlike what you purchase from the utility (which averages 30% of what was originally sent). And most of the time you are transferring that credit from a high usage time to a low usage time (night), which is cheaper for the utility.
Ack, sorry bout that! Hot topic for me, lol!
From what I can tell they are trying to find a cheap way to get power at the expense of the solar customers. Say you pay $0.12 per kwh - they are buying that for $0.08 and selling it back to you. They negotiate how much they pay with big power companies. They are proposing that they have to pay as low as $0.02 per kwh to the solar customers, who couldn't negotiate like the big companies. So, instead of giving you equal credit they will give you $0.02 on you bill then turn around and sell it back to you for $0.12. So to break even you would have to produce enough for you and 5 of your neighbors instead of just you. And still pay the solar and customer fees. And what they were paying $0.08 for they want to give you $0.02 for. It costs 10-15 years worth of energy bills to get solar so needing a system that is 6 times larger will kill it.
For the arguments that the solar customers shouldn't get even credit for what they produce... There is little to no line loss going to a neighbors house unlike what you purchase from the utility (which averages 30% of what was originally sent). And most of the time you are transferring that credit from a high usage time to a low usage time (night), which is cheaper for the utility.
Ack, sorry bout that! Hot topic for me, lol!
and, we aren't making that faster by using solar - we aren't tapping into the sun, simply using the energy the sun has already released. It's there if we choose to use it or not.
