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Solar panel on hog barn??
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Douglas
Posted 4/4/2018 10:51 (#6686421 - in reply to #6686209)
Subject: RE: Solar panel on hog barn??


Central North Carolina

Jim - 4/4/2018 09:27

From your link:

"...solar customers avoid paying many of the fixed costs of the grid that are factored into their monthly bills. As such, these fixed costs are then shifted onto non-solar customers."

The same could be said of folks that switch from incandescent to LED light bulbs (approx. 80% reduction in energy use). Or customers that lock the door and go to Florida for the winter....they are not paying their share of the fixed costs either and are shifting fixed costs to those who did not change light bulbs nor go south for the winter.

This is exactly what I said above: fixed costs ("facility" costs) need to be separated on utility bills from the variable kwhr costs. Facility charges must not be "factored into" the energy charge.  Some utilities such as our local REC now do this with their approx. $40 minimum/facility charge per meter per month. Others will have to do this. Energy charges will go down and fixed facilities charges must go up when the two charges are separated and accurately billed.  It will not be easy but needs to be done to be fair and accurate.

Utility company billing problems are not solar, nor LED, nor vacation, nor insulation problems.

Fixed costs are fixed costs, they are not variable (energy) costs.


But utilities work differently from light bulb manufacturers. They are required by law to provide power to everyone with an approved rate structure by state regulators. At least that is the way they work here.

Sure it is fine for folks to save on their electric bill, but no one is giving you a subsidy/incentive to buy efficient bulbs or turn the thermostat down in addition to the cost savings. Solar net metering does. It is both cost savings and revenue generating.

If you raise facility charges too much some will discontinue all together. What happens when businesses that are paying higher power rates than others already decide to have solar and back up diesel generators and leave the grid. That is fine for them to do, but it will shift cost to others less able to pay the higher cost. As revenues decline power companies will raise prices. To add to that an incentive to have their own power sources hurts everyone else.

You are missing the point, your are arguing about billing practices but miss the overall point that utilities get there money from someone always. Utilities are like governments in many respects. They have cost to cover and they back into how to bill customers to cover them and pay a required return to investors. Those rate structures and changes to them are generally politically driven not economics driven. Regulators like to subsidize residential with business charges for the most part. And in recent years favor renewable energy sources.

When power company revenues from one source go down they increase them elsewhere. Power companies need volume to keep cost down just like a manufacturer. When volume declines prices go up because most people have no alternative sources of power. The power company never loses, all the money for fix and variable cost are born by the same customers one way or another. Customers also should not have to pay to buy solar power the system might not even need.

There are plenty of  very sunny days when the temp is 70 degrees and no one has the AC on. It is just plain stupid. This issue is entirely about environmental advocacy by trying to reduce CO2 and economics and cost do matter to them and never will. The hope is that the cost of solar and wind and other things can be spread around enough that no one notice that the economic don't work most of the time. 



Edited by Douglas 4/4/2018 10:58
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