The attack on Distributed Energy

[pinballlooking]

Very interesting take on all of this.
Tipping Point Nears for Abandoning the Utility and Going Off-Grid
"Morgan Stanley sees falling PV costs, Tesla’s big battery bet and rising electricity prices as cues for consumers to disconnect from the grid."

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...Going-Off-Grid




Koch brothers are throwing big money at stopping net metering.
Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies - LA Times

It appears to be having bought and paid for people speaking out.

Hopefully you guys are right and enough people will start to support solar.

I know here Duke Energy tried to change North Carolina net metering and they picketed their headquarters they have thousands of solar customers. Here in South Carolina Duke says their only 100 Solar installs so they came after this state and then if they get a win they will take that to other states they are in and say look what we paid for to happen in SC you should do the same.

[jeff5may]

Some excerpts of the above cited article illustrate the disease growing within our economy today...

"If you are using the grid and benefiting from the grid, you should pay for it," said David Owens, executive vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, the advocacy arm for the industry. "If you don't, other customers have to absorb those costs."

The institute has warned power companies that profits could erode catastrophically if current policies and market trends continue. If electricity companies delay in taking political action, the group warned in a report, "it may be too late to repair the utility business model."

In Arizona, a major utility and a tangle of secret donors and operatives with ties to ALEC and the Kochs invested millions to persuade state regulators to impose a monthly fee of $50 to $100 on net-metering customers.

Two pro-business groups, at least one of which had previously reported receiving millions of dollars from the Koch brothers, formed the campaign's public face. Their activities were coordinated by GOP consultant Sean Noble and former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams, two early architects of the Koch network of nonprofits.

In October, California ethics officials levied a $1-million fine after accusing groups the two men ran during the 2012 election of violating state campaign finance laws in an effort to hide the identities of donors.

The Arizona Public Service Co., the state's utility, also had Noble on its payroll. As a key vote at the Arizona Corporation Commission approached late last year, one of the commissioners expressed frustration that anonymous donors had bankrolled the heated campaign. He demanded APS reveal its involvement. The utility reported it had spent $3.7 million.

The commission ultimately voted to impose a monthly fee on solar consumers — of $5.

News like this disturbs me deeply about the lengths that large-cap, staple industry leaders will go to protect every penny of profit they can possibly horde. Meanwhile, some other team in the same corporation is proclaiming their benevolence toward everything clean and green. Disgustingly ridiculous.

[where2]

Originally Posted by jeff5may

Some excerpts of the above cited article illustrate the disease growing within our economy today...

"If you are using the grid and benefiting from the grid, you should pay for it," said David Owens, executive vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, the advocacy arm for the industry. "If you don't, other customers have to absorb those costs."

Last night, I was looking into the interconnection agreements and electric rates in the next place I want to install a solar setup. In doing so, I found that the base meter fee of a little over $7.50 gets you a service connection and up to 100kWh at no additional charge.

Time to look at some Outback inverter/chargers and design an off grid system that switches to grid backup if a week of cloudy weather rolls in and the batteries run low.

[NiHaoMike]

Which translates into 7.5c/kWh, not bad at all. But how much do they charge for "overages"?

[pinballlooking]

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

Which translates into 7.5c/kWh, not bad at all. But how much do they charge for "overages"?

Yes that sounds like a good deal. Here I pay $8.29 this is only meter fee. The other place we pay $27.50 meter fee only (this is Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative)and you can offset that fee with solar.

[where2]

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

Which translates into 7.5c/kWh, not bad at all. But how much do they charge for "overages"?

Meter fee for my system in Florida is $7.58 at the moment for 0kWh per month.

What I haven't found yet on the ~$7.50 base meter charge is the "transmission, distribution and stranded costs" rate schedule. The $0.0759/kWh sounds nice, until you toss the delivery fees in. I just emailed them, we'll see.