Net Metering - How Con Ed will PAY YOU to Go Solar

Before we dive into how you can get power companies like Con Ed to PAY YOU for going solar, let’s establish a few things.

When you install solar panels on your roof, you can produce electricity to power your home anytime the sun is out – even when it’s cloudy. You just won’t produce as much electricity as you would if it was sunny. But what if you have 5 cloudy days in a row? What if you have 10 rainy days in a row? What about the electricity you need at night when the sun’s not shining?

In order to solve such conundrums, it used to be the case that you needed a battery bank - a series of deep cycle car batteries that could store extra electricity for a rainy day (or night). That way, when your solar panels were producing electricity, you could use whatever juice you needed, and whatever was left over would go into the piggy bank.

Sounds good, right?

The problem is that a battery bank can add $7,000 onto the cost of your system, which isn’t going to encourage anybody to go solar. So then somebody thought, “Instead of storing extra power in expensive batteries, what if we could just store it in the power lines? You could connect the panels directly to the utility meter, that way any extra power you produced could be fed into the grid, and whatever power you needed on nights and rainy days could be pulled from the grid. You wouldn’t need batteries.”

Brilliant.

Now, what happens if you’re actually producing more electricity than you’re using? That would mean you’d be giving power to Con Ed.

You’re thinking, “I’m not giving those #*#&%ers a nickel!”

You’re exactly right, my friend. This is when Con Ed buys electricity from you.

The concept is called Net Metering – it means that you use whatever electricity you’re producing, but anything extra goes into the grid. And by law, anything extra that goes into the grid, power companies like Con Ed must buy from you at the same rate that you would otherwise buy it from them.

I’m serious… it’s required by law in 40 states… look it up.

Here’s the cool part: When you have a chance, go outside and look at your electric meter. You’ll see that there’s a turning dial that’s counting the number of kilowatt-hours you’re consuming. If you decide to go solar and net meter, you can go look at your meter on a hot sunny day and find that your meter is actually spinning backwards. At the end of the year, if your meter is lower than when it started, Con Ed will mail you a check.

So why would Con Ed agree to do this?

As I mentioned in my last post, power companies like Con Ed need more creative ways to meet their peak demands and avoid the risk of blackouts. Coincidentally, these peak demands (people turning on their air conditioners) happen to coincide with solar panels reaching their peak production (hot sunny days). It’s a match made in heaven.

But Con Ed will only go along with this as long as it’s helping them, and not costing them too much money. In New York State, the law mandates that you can only net meter solar energy systems of up to 10 kilowatts in size (For a reference, an average house would need a system of about 8 kw to meet all of its energy needs). The law also states that power companies will only accept applications for net metering until 0.1 % of peak demand levels are met.

By comparison, New Jersey allows up to 2,000 kw systems to net meter, with no percentage cap (Yeah, New Jersey’s plans are a lot better than ours)

California really has the best incentives in the country, but since my long lost brother Solar Dweller on the west coast has Cali covered, I’m just going to focus on the East Coast.

The industry folks don’t hoot and holler too much about the 0.1% cap in New York – it’s bigger than you think. The 10 kw capacity is what really gets them riled up. It means that larger buildings can’t net meter, since they need hundreds, sometimes thousands of kilowatts to meet their energy needs.

You’d think that the blackout in Queens would be enough for the state to realize the benefits of larger buildings net metering, and easing the loads on the power lines. But those power companies can get greedy.

The New York Solar Energy Industry Association is pushing hard to get net metering expanded to 2,000 kw, but we’ll have to see what happens.


Don’t Take My Word For It

“Don’t Take My Word For It” is a feature I’m going to include at the end of every post. It’s a link to a credible, scholarly source, for those of you looking for more info.

Take a look at the New York Solar Energy Industry Association (NYSEIA) position on Net Metering