And in many jurisdictions they're putting time limits or just straight up eliminating net metering and replacing it with net billing.

So instead of 1:1 credits, the power company buys it from you at what they would pay their producers (read, several times less than what they charge you).

It's a fucking scam.

My power company limits the size of panels and time limits net metering (they don't even do it anymore for new solar installs). So you can either not do solar or go completely 100% off grid with only one step.

It's a fucking scam. The engineer justified it to us when he was signing off on our solar install as "well when we do 1:1 credits c that's like you stealing from your neighbors. They don't want to pay your the full retail cost. They want to pay you what we pay the power producers."

When I asked if that meant my neighbors would have the ability to pay less, he just sort of looked flatly at me.

An absolute scam.

Edit;

Sorry, I forgot to add;

1. They also won't allow battery storage while connected to the grid. If they wanted to buy surplus but allowed my to store my own production, I would be fine with it.

2. They also net bill daily. So while I may produce extra within the billing cycle, they zero out excess production daily.

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Taek 21 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well, in some cases it's scam, but its genuinely the case that power at different times of the day has different value, and most NEM agreements completely ignore the cost of transmission, which itself is quite hefty.

So it is plenty reasonable that you wouldn't get 1:1, especially if the grid is already able to satisfy all demand during peak sunlight by using just base load + solar. Some power companies turn it into a scam anyway and set grossly disadvantaged prices for consumers, but just because it's not 1:1 doesn't mean that it is a scam.

	▲	belorn 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The energy market has many similarities to the stock market. People also bet on the prices going down or up by contracting themselves to produce a set amount of energy at a given time for a given price. There are companies which only do trades and has no own production, earning their profits only through market predictions.
	▲	Dylan16807 18 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Well, infrastructure costs money. But talking about the cost of transmission sure does highlight issues with this billing model. Because if it's going to the neighbor there's negligible transmission. The engineer's argument was very stupid.

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oangemangut a day ago | parent | prev [-]

isn't it logical though that the power company would buy power for less than it sells? and paying the same rate that it buys from larger producers seems fair.

	▲	dv_dt a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The principle is fair, but the specific price can be unfair. Especially if the home as provider could be supplying into spot or other markets. Thats where a neighborhood or coty consortium/ cooperative of community users could make sense to maintain a better pricing deal from the utility.
	▲	Loughla 21 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sorry, I forgot to add; 1. They also won't allow battery storage while connected to the grid. If they wanted to buy surplus but allowed my to store my own production, I would be fine with it. 2. They also net bill daily. So while I may produce extra within the billing cycle, they zero out excess production daily.