5.6 Net Metering and Distributed Generation

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来自 University of Colorado System 的课程

Electric Utilities Fundamentals and Future

99 个评分

University of Colorado System

Electric Utilities Fundamentals and Future

99 个评分

THIS COURSE GIVES YOU THE INSIDE TRACK TO A COMPLICATED INDUSTRY. The approach of this course is truly unique in how it approaches and engages learners. It looks at the electric utility industry, which has remained critical to our quality of life, health and comfort from the eyes of numerous industry experts through on-location interviews, compelling visuals, and animation. You will benefit from having the inside track because you see some behind-the-scenes information not covered in news stories, social media or even if we are in the business ourselves. EACH WEEK YOU NOT ONLY LEARN WHAT IS CHANGING, BUT WHY. As this industry continues to unfold at an unprecedented pace, you will be armed with knowledge and insights to form informed opinions supporting decisions you will increasingly make for your energy-dependent homes and businesses. This course kicks off with animated crash course on industry history, highlighting aspects of the structure, governance, and technology that remain today, despite the passage of time. Then, throughout the modules, you will build some basics about how electricity gets to you, who watches over decisions, including setting rates. This information establishes a knowledge foundation so that when we explore some of the most critical topics, like renewable energy, smart grid, battery storage, and you can think about it from a much more analytical and critical viewpoint. YOU WILL DEVELOP A FRAMEWORK FOR MAKING SENSE OF THIS INDUSTRY THAT WILL BENEFIT YOU BEYOND THIS COURSE. This industry can get pretty complicated, and this course will help you make more sense of it. Electric Utilities Fundamentals and Future is the course for you whether you’re just curious about the industry or an industry veteran looking to grow – or, thinking about joining the industry. (Hint: now is a good time. You'll learn why in this course.) No prior education or experience required. You just need a healthy curiosity and an open mind to learn about an industry that I think a lot of us, including myself sometimes, take for granted.

从本节课中

Toward a Bright Future

Over the past four weeks together, we've learned that there is more than meets the eye in this industry. With its rich history, complex regulatory framework and dependency on natural resources we know that the decisions we make today will impact how future generations receive electricity over the next century. This module pulls together the information we've learned so far so we can think about what the future holds from a place of knowledge. We'll look at what industry insiders consider the biggest hurdles and opportunity areas and hypothesize about what shifts might occur. In this final module, armed with your newfound knowledge, I'm going to ask you to connect the dots and express your informed opinion. With that - let's jump on in!

5.1 Introduction2:55

5.2 Smart Grid10:22

5.3 Microgrids1:54

5.4 Storage3:22

5.5 Electric Vehicles3:54

5.6 Net Metering and Distributed Generation7:09

5.7 Clean Power Plan4:35

5.8 Future Models13:41

与讲师见面

Melissa Wood
Faculty Member
University of Colorado Denver Business School, Global Energy Management Program

We talked in an earlier lesson about distributed generation.

As a reminder,

this is when electricity is generated near the location where it's being used.

We also talked about the fact that with some energy sources being used for

generation being more intermittent, for example,

the sun doesn't shine all the time and the wind doesn't blow at the optimal speed all

the time, you know that a connection to the grid is still needed.

Otherwise, these customers would not have electricity 24/7.

Another reason the grid is still needed is because many users

sell energy back to the utility.

And for this, you need a good connection.

>> They benefit in two ways, one is when their generation is not operating,

obviously the greatest providing them power.

But the grid also supplies them capacity for their storage.

Essentially, they're storing energy on the system, and

then using it when they have load and their generation is no longer on.

So, there's two benefits there for customers with solar generation.

>> Back in the 70s, there was a push by the government to increase penetration of

rooftop solar.

This is the genesis of net metering which is an approach for

charging customers with rooftop solar.

This approach was designed to encourage adoption and so

it served to make rooftop solar more affordable through subsidies.

Fast forward to today and solar rooftop penetration is going strong.

So the question is being asked, does it still need government subsidies to grow,

or could and should this market be able to stand on its own?

At the center of the debate is the fact that those who don't have solar

are subsidizing those who do.

Let's dig into this in more detail.

>> So for a residential customer that has some solar generation,

the watt outer meter runs forwards and

backwards, depending on whether or not the customer's using more load than

the solar is producing or when the sun isn't shining.

Or it runs backwards when the load at the house is not enough for,

is too much for, not enough for the solar capacity that's coming into the system.

So the meter runs both ways.

So, when the meter runs backward, there's negative kilowatt hours,

and then when it runs forward there's positive kilowatt hours.

So, according to the commission rules,

customers can install a system up to about 120% of their annual kilowatt hours.

So, if a customer has one these systems where it's designed and

it actually produces 120% of their annual kilowatt hours, then the meter in

large terms, ran backwards 120% of the time.

And so, what happens then is utility didn't get paid any money for

the system that's being connected and

then has to pay the customer for the energy that was produced in the system.

>> Net metering is approached a little differently in every state.

Usually, here's how it works.

Customers with rooftop solar or other distributed generation get credit for

the extra electricity they sell back to the grid.

Utilities are generally required to buy this electricity at the full retail rate.

Now if that same utility were buying power on the open market from other utilities,

they would pay wholesale rates.

But net metering specifies that the utilities must buy the power at

a retail rate or a premium rate from net metering customers.

The net, it's more expensive.

Also, all of the fixed costs of the poles, wires, meters, advanced technologies,

and other infrastructure still has to get covered somewhere.

So the bottom line is that the net metering customer doesn't pay for

this stuff, but they use it.

So, who pays for it?

Customers without distributed generation or rooftop solar.

>> So when you take a look at the bill and

it says a service charge, it's all over the place.

Well, what's included in that service charge?

And then we start talking about residential customers as it relates around

to the energy rate.

And this is where we get into a lot of these conversations about net metering,

what's the cost effectiveness?

Who's paying for what?

Are they paying their full share or not?

>> Right now there's a pretty heated discussion going on about the need to

relook at net metering.

At the heart of the discussion is how to ensure fair compensation for

solar companies as well as utilities.

>> Then you turn the corner,

evolution of technology, you come to the solar industry.

You have the rooftop installations.

They're using what is known as net metering.

Net metering is you measure the amount of energy that's coming out of the home,

you measure the amount of the energy that's being consumed by the home, and

you get to net the two together.

The problem is, is that the infrastructure that's still behind that, that's based off

of the, how much is everybody using at the same time, is still needed, is still being

utilized, but because of that netting, it isn't necessarily being paid for.

And so that's, once again, back to that debate that's

raging across the country right now on how do you really balance these factors and

the benefits that come from the installations?

What's going to happen?

And we have, I think,

still a number of years before we really know what the outcome of that debate is.

>> So the industry is changing.

That puts pressure on the regulatory side.

For the last 100 years, most of utility fixed

costs have been recovered in variable rates because it worked.

And because there was either consistent load or increasing load.

With distributed generation that turns it upside down and

the variable amount of usage or sales is declining for

many utilities which puts pressure on them to recover their fixed costs in

different ways, and then that creates some backlash.

>> The cost of producing solar power has gone down since net metering was first

rolled out.

The original purpose was to incent market growth.

With that in mind, state legislatures and

utility regulatory commissions are looking at outdated net metering policies.

The solar industry has countered saying that the subsidies aren't material and

that the prevalence of rooftop solar helps to alleviate the strain on electric grids

during summer days when demand soars.

What we do know is that increased penetration of distributed

energy technologies, particularly solar, is creating a fundamental shift in the US

electricity system, and public policy must respond to this.

Policy over the previous one way street approach no longer suits this

complex market.

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