Although some homeowners have only a photovoltaic system attached to their home, many solar-powered homes and businesses are connected to transmission power lines outside their homes and businesses. The transmission lines are part of a grid system owned by a utility company. Using grid-connected photovoltaic power can have economic as well as environmental advantages for the homeowner.
Because such homeowners are using much of their electricity from their own photovoltaic system, the amount of electricity they have to purchase from the utility company each month is reduced. In this cooperative arrangement, the homeowners get some of their power from their photovoltaic systems and some from the utility company’s grid.
What Is Net Metering?
Net metering is a simple way of metering the energy consumed and produced at a home or business that has its own renewable energy generator, such as a solar energy system.
Net metering enables homeowners to use their own generation of electricity to off set their consumption over a billing period by allowing their electric meters to turn backward when they generate electricity in excess of their demand. Th is program means that customers receive retail prices from their electrical utility company for the excess electricity they generate. A retail price is the price at which a utility company sells the electrical power to a homeowner or other consumer.
Without net metering, a second meter is usually installed to measure the electricity that flows back to the provider, a utility company that purchases the power at a rate much lower than the retail rate. As of 2010, net metering for homeowners is available in 42 states.
John F. Mongillo
A Student Guide to Energy
Copyright 2011
Greenwood Publishing Group
Volume 2 Solar Energy and Hydrogen Fuel Cells
(For solar energy solutions and supplies visit our website: www.eastgreenfields.com or email us at inquiry@eastgreenfields.com)
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