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Those costs are paid either way though, aren't they? At least, it seems that close to 100% of houses with roof-top solar are still grid connected, so I don't r

• epistasis 4y ago
  With no behind-the-meter solar, the peak for T&D is during midday. With behind-the-meter solar, this peak is capped, and if the local solar is allowed to power the rest of the distribution nod with net metering, then that means less transmission too. T&D must be sized for the peak, so lots of residential solar means a lower peak and lower T&D costs. Of course, this goes agains the utility narrative, because they can't admit that or else their regulators might have to allow such residential net metering. Instead, utilities try to frame the argument that solar customers are taking away from their neighbors or somehow not paying their fair share. But when evaluated as a whole system, using massive distributed solar along with utility scale is far cheaper than building it all utility scale due to the T&D savings.