>--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "Darryl McMahon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I expect net metering has probably been implemented well >somewhere. In Ontario, it >> is still not permitted. Provincial government has been muttering >about changing >> legislation to permit it for a little less than a year now, but >nothing concrete >> yet. > >I'm in MN USA, and we have Net-Metering on paper only. I tried with 3 >different Utilities to tie-in with alternative energy produced >electricity. Their roadblock is that you have to have their >permission to tie into their system. To get permission, you have to >meet all imaginable safety specifications. NONE of them have Safety >Specifications in place! The best offer I was able to get, was that >if I would send $10,000 up-front, they would start a study to >determine what safety issues would need to be addressed, and perhaps >what Equipment Specs would be needed to comply. They would start the >Study immediately upon receipt of my check, and would contact me when >additional funds were needed, with no prediction as to what the total >cost of the study might be. >As my needs were only for a temporary connection to conduct some >research, I declined their offer. I made temporary connection without >their knowledge or permission, conducted the testing I needed to do, >and disconnected. >> >> > >> The more of this nonsense I see, the more I think grid-tying is a >waste for the >> typical residential power producer. (I like the concept, just not >the >> implementations I am aware of.) > >I agree. Is this perhaps a business opportunity for someone to >Engineer such systems? The economic realities are that alternatives >are barely justifiable in many cases when you figure in Capital costs >vs the avoided cost of purchased power. The additional cost of inter- >tie equipment puts the option out of the financial reach for many.
I had meant to respond to this and a couple of other points that you made that I thought were good. Many of us end up "tilting at windmills" and it's a skill to learn to choose your spots. This happened with me recently in trying to get a better phone bill. It would have been rewarding to tell my local utility to shove off, and I did for awhile, but it cost me an attrocious amount of money. When I realized they held all the cards, or most of them, I decided to go back and deal with it in a different way a bit further down the road. Likewise, as you suggest, there are probably people who try to do the math, on their own, and find it difficult to buck the system on net metering, distributed energy, etc. etc. You ask and suggest if there is a business opportunity here. I think Darryl's website seems to indicate that he's sort of in the business already here, but I don't know. >> Batteries are a bit of a nuisance, but less >> aggravation than paying for gear acceptable to the local utility, >extra >> installation and inspections, and then dealing with this silliness. > >Retrofitting existing systems would be difficult, but I see a >potential for a paralell electrical system, one tied to the grid, and >one connected to your personal source, with no intertie between them. >Engineering would have to be site-specific. I also thought this was a good point. If your local utility does try to screw you, then I guess a compromise is to forgo the advantages of interconnection and spend the extra capital (or not) for onsite energy storage. Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
