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Why would net metering go away? With distributed production and net metering a power company becomes an electricity broker instead of sole producer.
by tastyfreeze 3y ago
Why would net metering go away? With distributed production and net metering a power company becomes an electricity broker instead of sole producer.
- skybrian 3y agoBecause the price is wrong. Power companies already buy much of their electricity from independent power generators. However, for the economics to work, producer prices need to be lower than retail prices. These prices change throughout the day, based on demand. Net metering results in people getting paid the retail price instead of the producer price.
- tastyfreeze 3y agoWhy wouldn't the power company just reduce the price they will purchase power at? Make profit on the spread like every other market. There will still be people that have property where they can produce an excess of power they can sell.
- hnaccount_rng 3y agoThis is what they’ll do. But that’s simply not what net-metering means. Net-metering means (essentially) buying at the same price that the utility sells.
- skybrian 3y agoThat does make sense, but then it’s not net metering anymore and would require a smarter meter. It’s also less attractive to homeowners because they get paid a lot less. (Prices are low when the sun is shining due to competition from utility-scale solar.) Charging batteries starts looking like a better alternative. A decentralized power system is going to have a lot of battery backup and that might even be more important than the solar panels?
- swamp_donkey 3y agoBecause they have signed 40 year contracts so that the people that built the power plant could get financing