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Impact of Rate Design and Net Metering on the Bill Savings from Distributed PV for Residential Customers in California.

DE2010983121

Publication Date	2010
Personal Author	Darghouth, N.; Barbose, G.; Wiser, R.
Page Count	61
Abstract	Net metering has become a widespread policy in the U.S. for supporting distributed photovoltaics (PV) adoption. Though specific design details vary, net metering allows customers with PV to reduce their electric bills by offsetting their consumption with PV generation, independent of the timing of the generation relative to consumption - in effect, compensating the PV generation at retail electricity rates (Rose et al. 2009). While net metering has played an important role in jump-starting the residential PV market in the U.S., challenges to net metering policies have emerged in a number of states and contexts, and alternative compensation methods are under consideration. Moreover, one inherent feature of net metering is that the value of the utility bill savings it provides to customers with PV depends heavily on the structure of the underlying retail electricity rate, as well as on the characteristics of the customer and PV system. Consequently, the value of net metering - and the impact of moving to alternative compensation mechanisms - can vary substantially from one customer to the next. For these reasons, it is important for policymakers and others that seek to support the development of distributed PV to understand both how the bill savings varies under net metering, and how the bill savings under net metering compares to other possible compensation mechanisms. To advance this understanding, we analyze the bill savings from PV for residential customers of California's two largest electric utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE). The analysis is based on hourly load data from a sample of 215 residential customers located in the service territories of the two utilities, matched with simulated hourly PV production for the same time period based on data from the nearest of 73 weather stations in the state.
Keywords	Electricity Metering Rates(Costs) California Photovoltaic power systems Residential buildings Renewable resources
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA. Environmental Energy Technologies Div.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Supplemental Notes	Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	201109
Contract Number	DE-AC02-05CH11231

Impact of Rate Design and Net Metering on the Bill Savings from Distributed PV for Residential Customers in California.

Impact of Rate Design and Net Metering on the Bill Savings from Distributed PV for Residential Customers in California.
DE2010983121

Publication Date	2010
Personal Author	Darghouth, N.; Barbose, G.; Wiser, R.
Page Count	61
Abstract	Net metering has become a widespread policy in the U.S. for supporting distributed photovoltaics (PV) adoption. Though specific design details vary, net metering allows customers with PV to reduce their electric bills by offsetting their consumption with PV generation, independent of the timing of the generation relative to consumption - in effect, compensating the PV generation at retail electricity rates (Rose et al. 2009). While net metering has played an important role in jump-starting the residential PV market in the U.S., challenges to net metering policies have emerged in a number of states and contexts, and alternative compensation methods are under consideration. Moreover, one inherent feature of net metering is that the value of the utility bill savings it provides to customers with PV depends heavily on the structure of the underlying retail electricity rate, as well as on the characteristics of the customer and PV system. Consequently, the value of net metering - and the impact of moving to alternative compensation mechanisms - can vary substantially from one customer to the next. For these reasons, it is important for policymakers and others that seek to support the development of distributed PV to understand both how the bill savings varies under net metering, and how the bill savings under net metering compares to other possible compensation mechanisms. To advance this understanding, we analyze the bill savings from PV for residential customers of California's two largest electric utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE). The analysis is based on hourly load data from a sample of 215 residential customers located in the service territories of the two utilities, matched with simulated hourly PV production for the same time period based on data from the nearest of 73 weather stations in the state.
Keywords	Electricity Metering Rates(Costs) California Photovoltaic power systems Residential buildings Renewable resources
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA. Environmental Energy Technologies Div.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Supplemental Notes	Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	201109
Contract Number	DE-AC02-05CH11231