Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverGT
But buying back energy is capitalism at it's best.
The energy company will resell the energy at a profit and all they are is a middle man. If you think this through a bit further, you could have an energy company that doesn't create any energy, just acts as a broker for the producers and consumers. And if those producers are thousands of little cars running around, then so be it.
Oliver.
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My power company is owned by the township. Once upon a time it had its own power plant, but now it is just a broker like described with fees to care for the lines.
Most early net metering programs for home solar power basically worked along a credit plan; excess electricity made at the home during day would be credited against electricity it used at night. Aside to the few people with large PV systems that overproduce what they need, the power company is essentially paying retail rates for the electric the homeowner makes. With transmission losses, that means they lose money on the electricity they get from the home owner when they sell it to someone else.
A fairer way for all would be along these lines:
-fee for the electric used by the household
-fee for line usage and maintenance; based upon the amount of electric used, those using the infrastructure more pay more; should in align for a household without PV
-payment for home PV power put onto the grid, at the wholesale rate at the time of production
-a flat hook up fee that is reasonably higher for net metered homes to help compensate for the lower line usage fees they'll pay; in some states or markets, the home solar power means the power company has to build less renewable of their own to meet mandates or the company might get the RECs, if so, this must be factored into this fee.
I think most solar homeowners would agree with this once transmission losses and maintenance needs for the infrastructure are explained. Most power companies seem to be just any other greedy corporation, and likely shouldn't be completely left in private hands without strong oversight.
Now, using batteries as a buffer for peak shaving or time shaving does work to reduce costs and even improve the grid's efficiency. This the practice of charging up a bank batteries at lower night time rates, and then using that stored power to offset buying power at higher rates during the day. The batteries can also be used to store excess renewable power.
I'm not sold on using plug in car batteries for such power banks. The batteries are improving, but they still have a finite lifespan by some metric. One of those metrics is charge and discharge cycles. It might be minor, but plugins charging and discharging for grid use will degrade the traction battery, and it'll add up over time.
When a car traction pack needs to be replaced, it still has plenty of life left to serve as a buffer on the grid. So shortening the time it could be a car traction pack by acting as a buffer for the grid doesn't make sense for the car owner. The required compensation for them might be too much to be practical.
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