The main change in California is the push for battery storage that will help with the evening peak and store energy during the day. In the article above. It’ is actually what we are doing but they have taken some time to get there. I expect Europe to follow suit. Lots of PV but almost all Grid Tied (no storage)
Learn from others’ endeavors.
Note that I did not use the word “mistakes”. As it was not.
Here in Australia the smart metering has allowed for the supplier to be able to charge you at different rates at different times of day. Once upon a time off peak was after 19:00hrs after industry had let the workers go home. Now peak is 17:00-21:00 when people get home and have to use electricity to boil the kettle /cook a meal i.e. do the things that people do to live.
Solar feed in is not deducted from your consumption. Rather it is metered and paid for at a very low rate about 15-20% of what you pay for when you use power.
Due to the high rate of take up of solar the system now has too much power coming into the network at 10:00-14:00. This all results in what they refer to as a duck curve for the shape of power available vs time or maybe consumption vs time (can’t remember exactly). Anyway there are providers that will not pay you for your solar feedin as the wholesale price of power during the middle of the day can go negative, they will pay you to take the energy off the network.
Best to use what you make and minimise what you take from the network. Although they still get you by charging a per day supply charge just for the luxury of being connected to the network.
No matter what it is all about getting the many to contribute to few. A capitalist system will always benefit the capitalist.
The US experience will vary by every state (of 50) and every utility within that state and over time
I have a system in Maine in the USA (two utilities in the state, plus a few municipal or co-op systems).
I get a 1-1 feed-in tariff. That is, I “run the meter backwards” with my overgeneration, and the utility acts as my storage battery. I have a small system that can only cover about 50% of my overall use. But if I had a larger system, any excess generation over the year would be lost (credits reset on the anniversary) - so ideally you match without going too large (at present)
We have a special cheap KWHr rate in winter (we heat with heat pumps) from Nov 1 to May 1. Of course our generation is also “discounted” during that time. We pay about US$40/mo for connection charges. That would only be $25 if not on the special heat pump rate
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