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How long before the utilities (likely successfully) lobby to make PV/DER illegal, I wonder. Soon, I'd wager. As I see it, the purpose of this report is FUD, wh
by madaxe 14y ago
How long before the utilities (likely successfully) lobby to make PV/DER illegal, I wonder.
Soon, I'd wager. As I see it, the purpose of this report is FUD, which is usually the opening move of any protectionist initiative.
Edit: alternately, they'll push to tax it to high hell, or at least argue that they own sunshine (like water utilities do over rainwater collection) and should therefore be paid by PV users.
- tedsanders 14y agoI think that's an unfair and cynical view of the goals of utility companies. Some utilities may lobby to make distributed PV illegal, but I believe only to protect people and the integrity of the grid. -A former utility engineer
- madaxe 14y agoThe goal is to enhance shareholder value. End of story.
- tedsanders 14y agoThat's not the end of story. The reality is that utilities are filled with thousands of employees. Not every employee has the sole goal of enhancing shareholder value. Anyway, enhancing shareholder value isn't necessarily at odds with allowing people to generate electricity with distributed solar. You can defer quite a bit of capital expense (e.g. power lines) if the load gets reduced by generation. Finally, for some regulated utilities, maximizing revenue doesn't mean maximizing profits. Sometimes regulations set the profit, and there are ways to game it that don't involve running the utility as a private-profit-maximizing firm.