{"id":3978,"date":"2013-06-10T18:48:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T22:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3978"},"modified":"2019-11-05T14:36:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T19:36:58","slug":"austin-energy-pays-3-cents-extra-for-solar-and-everybody-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/austin-energy-pays-3-cents-extra-for-solar-and-everybody-wins.html","title":{"rendered":"Austin Energy pays 3 cents extra for solar and everybody wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nNet metering actually shortchanges rooftop solar generators,\r\ndiscovered Austin Energy by running the numbers.\r\nAnd here in Georgia we can’t even get net metering:\r\nmaybe we should.\r\nIn Austin, Texas it’s called the\r\n\r\nValue of Solar tariff<\/a>,\r\nand it’s an odd tariff that actually pays the solar generator.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nChris Warren wrote for Oxford American 7 June 2013,\r\n\r\nThe Revolution Will Be Solarized<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nTo come up with a true value of solar to the utility, Austin Energy\r\nformulated numerical values for all of the benefits yielded by each\r\nkilowatt-hour of distributed generation. These included not only the\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nactual electricity produced but also the elimination of line losses\r\nas well as costs the utility could avoid by not building, or even\r\ndelaying, construction on more generation. “If you put off a\r\nbillion-dollar decision for one year, that’s at five percent\r\ninterest,” said [Karl] Rabago. “It’s a big savings in cash each\r\nyear.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIn the end, Austin Energy determined that net metering was actually\r\nshortchanging solar customers. Now the utility credits homeowners\r\nwho have installed solar at a rate three cents higher than retail\r\nfor every kilowatt-hour produced, which could mean the near\r\nelimination of utility bills for some of Austin’s customers. And\r\nAustin’s new arrangement does something else that’s different from\r\ntraditional net metering arrangements. While customers receive more\r\ncredit for the solar energy they make, they are still charged at\r\nregular retail rates for the electricity they consume. “You\r\nhave a cloudy month where the utility has to provide a lot of\r\nelectricity, then they collect what they need to,” said\r\nRabago. “This was a major internal selling point.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nRabago is now educating executives, policymakers, and regulators\r\naround the country about Austin’s approach to solar. To his mind,\r\nit’s a vision of the utility of the future. “There’s an upside\r\nfor the utility to actually encourage the customer to get on the\r\nwagon to get more solar, to be part of their generation\r\nfleet,” he said. “When people always talk about\r\ndistributed generation being a game changer or whatever the current\r\nbuzz words are out there about utility transformation, it is true.\r\nThis is disruptive shit.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Net metering actually shortchanges rooftop solar generators, discovered Austin Energy by running the numbers. And here in Georgia we can’t even get net metering: maybe we should. In Austin, Texas it’s called the Value of Solar tariff, and it’s an odd tariff that actually pays the solar generator. Chris Warren wrote for Oxford American 7 […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[606,14,24],"tags":[2861,8794,8704,8701,8702,12,7,637,8714,6],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austinenergy","category-economy","category-solar","tag-net-metering","tag-austinenergy","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-rooftop","tag-solar","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-12a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21419,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/21419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}