OT: Electricity generation: "Net Billing" arrangements

[Bob Bruninga]

> Is the local power company even required to 
> take your electricity?

> in many places in the US, there is no legal requirement 
> for them to pay you for it if they let you back-feed at all.

Sometimes terminology is misleading.  Grid-tie is not about "selling" power
back to the utility.  It is confusing the issue to talk about them "paying
you" for electricity.  What happens when you backfeed, is simply that  your
meter runs and counts backwards.

The company will never "pay you" for a net negative reading (except in some
cases where they will only pay small wholesale rates).  SO anyone that
overfeeds is making an uneconomical decision (overbuilt their system).  What
happens is that you only pay for net -forward- movement of your meter.

So again, they really never pay you, its just that the amount you have to
pay them is reduced by the amount you generate.  After a year, if your meter
is still a net-negative  from the meter reading a year ago, again, they will
not "pay" you, they will simply restart the annual billing cycle with that
new reading.

I'm addressing the second sentence above.  The first sentence is a separate
issue.

Mechanical meters spin backwards and count backwards.  In effect, they are
net-meters.  But electronic meters will mechanically spin backwards but will
only count forward.  So do not do as I did for 3 months and backfeed an
electronic meter and then end up paying DOUBLE my normal utility bill!

Bob, WB4APR