Comments on: Campaign Launched to Counter Utilities’ Efforts to Derail California’s Net Metering Program

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 15:04:00 +0000

You don’t? Are you aware what a modest amount of solar has done to smack down midday peaks in Germany?

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 09:46:00 +0000

very expensive peak power to meet demand spikes. I don't agree with that.. visit

By: Marcacci Communications

Marcacci Communications — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:04:08 +0000

[…] and even though they have been credited with driving a boom in rooftop solar installations, utilities generally oppose the policy by saying it drives up electricity […]

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:38:00 +0000

You don’t see health and privacy risks mentioned because there aren’t any. Those problems exist only in the pseudo-reality of the tinfoil hat crowd.

As for your other concerns – load balancing is something that utilities do all the time. It’s part of their job.

Utilities own the grid wires, they benefit from surplus solar fed back through their wires. Solar coming from customers and paid back with cheap off-peak power allows utilities to avoid having to purchase very expensive peak power to meet demand spikes.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:26:00 +0000

“Smart meters then start running in reverse”

I had to laugh out loud when I read that. I’m sorry, but the author should know the meters running in reverse are the dumbest, oldest, mechanical ones.

It’s it more modern digital ones that often can’t measure production, only consumption.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:24:00 +0000

In large part of the US, solar is a very, very welcome peak shaver, helping to offset high A/C consumption with generation at the point of use. This kinda defeats your ‘freerider’ argument.

‘Enormous load balancing issues’? You must elaborate on that one. Do you have any concrete examples?

Solar increases and decreases in power gradually and predictably. There are quite accurate weather forecasts. So most utitlities have no issues with load balancing. Predictability is all that it takes and distributed solar is very predictable.

By: Ross

Ross — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:17:00 +0000

Coming out of the blocks with privacy and health risks isn’t really putting your strongest argument first is it?

The intermittency one isn’t much better as considerably more solar is already being connected into grids successfully already.

Freerider might be your best one but you’re a little shy about providing details. Telcos make similar arguments about protecting the investment in their last mile. They fail to recognise that that network was often built at the expense of monopoly charging.

By: Jim Rossi

Jim Rossi — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 07:42:00 +0000

This is a long polemical article, completely one-sided, but not much of an analysis. I see no mention of the privacy and health risk questions about smart meters (reasonable or not, they are big concerns to many people); or the enormous load balancing issues (solar can be intermittent & is not easily stored right now) and freerider dilemma (who pays for the transmission grid if residents produce more energy than they consume?) that are major issues the utilities worry about in the net metering debate.

I’m sorry to say I really didn’t learn a single thing from this article. We need more than talking points to get the world using more and more renewable energy.