Building Reserve and Using KWH

[bcroe]

?? So, you saying you should be paid for your transmission portion of the power also? Are you a standby volunteer lineman to repair/replace that 7000-volt wire between your house and the neighbors if something happens to it?

I never said any such thing. Go read it again. Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

I never said any such thing. Go read it again. Bruce Roe

I saw this All the excuses for not allowing this are just a smokescreen to the truth. Bruce Roe" . Though is was about dropping the credit for distribution from your system.

What were you trying to say?

[bcroe]

Not being part of the supplier bidding system, I am swapping kWh 1 for 1 between seasons,
no money is exchanged, paying the usual connect fee to keep facilities in place. Lately the
Po Co has said this is unfair, because I am not paying the cost of transporting energy from
the plant to my location. I say yes there is a cost, but it was paid in advance when
my neighbors used my power, but were billed for it including transport by the Po Co.
Bruce Roe

[scrambler]

I think paying a fee for transmission is not so much about the physical transport of your power from point A to point B, but more about contributing to the maintenance and development of the grid, which you / we do depend on.....

[Mike 134]

I think paying a fee for transmission is not so much about the physical transport of your power from point A to point B, but more about contributing to the maintenance and development of the grid, which you do depend on.....

YEP!!!! My thoughts too!!! Illinois did change the solar business model it is no longer one for one with new installations. They only pay for the energy generated. They did grandfather those of us who installed prior to the change.

[bcroe]

I see my connect fee as taking care of maintenance, and the energy fee as
proportional to the cost of buying energy. Fixed costs and variable costs.

If this is not true, the deal was already wrong when I just kept my bill total
under $20 (3 decades ago). Nobody ever said being frugal was wrong.
Bruce Roe

[scrambler]

Ultimately, it is just a game of label, if they consider they need more money from us, they will take it and we have little ways to be able to review their math as we do not have access to all the business-related data and costs...

So the way I make peace with it is that as long as I am using the grid as my battery to send my surplus away when it suits me, and so I get credited for when I actually use some from the grid, then it is fair game I pay something for using the grid that way

[bcroe]

I thought half a century ago it was worked out, utilities were regulated monopolies which were
allowed to collect rates for a reasonable return. My electric was simple, there was a fixed charge
to cover keeping equipment maintained in place, and a variable charge directly tied to the
amount of energy I was taking. I am still following that, but with Net Metering the Po Co is
receiving some extra benefits. One is I am helping level there load by delivering my peak
power when my neighbors are running the AC. Another is keeping my surplus generation,
collecting for it from my neighbors EVEN INCLUDING the transmission charge, even though
there was no transmission cost past my street. We can also claim to be a bit more green.

Now we just put one of our IL politicians is prison for bribes from the utilities, but we have not
undone the improper regs he got passed. Not long ago the gas co was convicted of big time
fraud. I would like to see ALL of those found promoting fraud in prison, no more settlements
with cash payoffs coming from us the public, no saying no admission of guilt.

Currently I am doing my best to do OK while staying within the rules. I also have a security
light at the street transformer pole, get billed for that every month. I certainly feel they are
getting all they deserve, no feeling that I owe them anything. Meantime there is this shell
game which obscures who is doing what, I see it killed our regulated monopoly concept.

Last year a surge affecting many of us knocked out the TV, some GFIs, and the control
board of a door opener. I got the TV working again, but had to buy another control
board (the other door controls I designed decades ago are still fine). Po Co policy says
they will compensate for line fault caused damage. But when I submitted it, they refused
to pay, because THEY had not recorder the fault. Bruce Roe