Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Chalk One Up for the Utility Companies Against Solar Energy

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Chalk One Up for the Utility Companies Against Solar Energy

    Last Wednesday, Virginia's State Corporation Commission announced that Dominion Virginia Power would be able to charge a standby fee for large-scale solar residential owners who use net metering. In another solar news story, we discussed the implications of such a charge. Solar power advocates worry that this will deter solar energy installations, dealing a blow to the solar energy industry in Virginia. The decision allows Dominion to charge any residential customer with solar systems that produce between ten and twenty kilowatts up to $60 per month, or $4.19 per kilowatt for a solar customer's average peak usage of Dominion's electricity each month. The idea is to pay for infrastructure costs associated with developing net metering: the charge covers costs to keep the power flowing to solar customers at times when the sun does not shine. Today, this charge affects only one customer in Virginia, but will deter any other large-scale installations from being built.

    More...

  • #2
    I knew it was coming. In virginia it doesn't surprise me since Dominion Power has always had control over the PSC.
    NABCEP certified Technical Sales Professional

    [URL="http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showthread.php?5334-Solar-Off-Grid-Battery-Design"]http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showth...Battery-Design[/URL]

    [URL]http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html[/URL] (Voltage drop Calculator among others)

    [URL="http://www.gaisma.com"]www.gaisma.com[/URL]

    Comment


    • #3
      That is ridiculous, so PSC now should be known as Dominion Junior. The reason that I used batteries and relays so there is no net metering and grid tie, even here there is an excessive amount of RIGAMAROLE to go through, and you can only use utility approved components.

      Comment


      • #4
        No Net Metering

        Originally posted by choyak View Post
        The reason that I used batteries and relays
        so there is no net metering and grid tie
        I suppose, you are using relays to switch loads to solar when you
        have the power, and back to the utility when you're out of energy?
        I have been contemplating ways to do that.

        Bruce Roe

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by bcroe View Post
          I suppose, you are using relays to switch loads to solar when you
          have the power, and back to the utility when you're out of energy?
          I have been contemplating ways to do that.

          Bruce Roe
          To have your cake and eat it too you will need to overcome the "anti is-landing" safeties built into the grid tie inverter. Those safeties are there to prevent electrocution of a Utility personnel working on a "dead" circuit which isn't safe if you are still generating and tied to the grid.

          Those inverters are pretty smart and hard to defeat their safeties. If you mess with their electronics you void any warranty. To keep generating for yourself you have to be totally disconnected from the grid yet somehow fool the inverter to thinking the grid is still powered for it to work and convert the PV system's DC power to AC power. To do that you need to have a very good understanding of the electrical code sizing requirements or you can destroy your equipment or worse electrocute someone.

          Comment


          • #6
            Put your panel mains on remote contactors. Build the controls so they stand alone independent of anything even (like mine) are on their own batteries just for communications.

            Put your house load monitoring on GPRS or if you have amateur radio license, have it key up and send a code burst, psk or something to let you know its' "getting close".

            Remote in, open your contactors and go off grid, or the other way around, if you are running shy on amp hours, unload the batteries and go back on utility. There is always a way around it. Allthough clunky, what I just described works and is cheap AND you don't have to tell the utility delivery company anything about it.

            In my opinion it isn't even worth trying to generate enough to mess with selling back to them. Or it isn't where I live anyway.

            I've been running my radio equipment off grid for many years.

            Buy more batteries??

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by BullCone View Post
              Put your panel mains on remote contactors. Build the controls so they stand alone independent of anything even (like mine) are on their own batteries just for communications.

              Put your house load monitoring on GPRS or if you have amateur radio license, have it key up and send a code burst, psk or something to let you know its' "getting close".

              Remote in, open your contactors and go off grid, or the other way around, if you are running shy on amp hours, unload the batteries and go back on utility. There is always a way around it. Allthough clunky, what I just described works and is cheap AND you don't have to tell the utility delivery company anything about it.

              In my opinion it isn't even worth trying to generate enough to mess with selling back to them. Or it isn't where I live anyway.

              I've been running my radio equipment off grid for many years.

              Buy more batteries??
              Sounds like it could work. The ability to remote in is important. The key is to know your contactors are truly open and have isolated your system. Batteries would be required but their cost can be heart stopping.

              Comment

              Working...
              X