An article by Greentechmedia highlights a proposal in California to have utility net metering programs pay for customer-supplied electricity from batteries, as well as for power directly from the sun.
As the article points out, utility programs are not generally designed to pay net-metering rates for power from batteries. However they don’t presently distinguish between stored power that originally came from someone’s rooftop solar panels and stored power that they themselves originally provided on the grid. That could change, the story says, once the California Public Utilities Commission responds to a petition that, unusually, drew support from both the solar industry and utilities.
“If certifiably solar-powered batteries can get paid, that could unleash a market signal with sweeping ramifications for solar customers and utilities trying to balance a highly renewable grid,” the story suggests. “California’s shift to new time-of-use rates lowers the value of solar at midday, when it floods the wires, and increases the price of evening power. That means reduced payback for traditional solar customers who can only export when the sun shines and then have to buy power at night. Those who pair solar panels with batteries, though, could store midday generation and sell it to the grid at the peak time-of-use rates, if allowed. That personal profit addresses a systemic challenge: the dreaded ‘duck curve’.”
Original story April 5 by Julian Spector at www.greentechmedia.com, or here.