CitiesGoGreen -September 2008 - (Page 32) Fast Forward Fast Forward is a place to share your big, innovative, incredibly obvious or ‘on the edge’ ideas, proposals, and rants. The subject is how to accelerate progress toward sustainability. Do you see a roadblock that needs removing, another way of thinking, engaging people, planning or financing? Or something else that would move us forward, fast? Let us know and you could be here in a future issue. You can comment on this column on our website. Cities and Counties as Agents for Change Understanding and Advocating for Net Metering and Interconnection, the Essentials of Renewable Energy Development by Kyle Rabin As understanding and experience with renewable energy accumulate, some things are becoming clear. Certain policies support the spread of renewable energy installations, and others hinder it. If we’re to get off coal and oil dependency, renewables must have the greatest possible scope for growth. Here’s how to foster that growth. grid, spinning their meter backward and decreasing their bill by the amount of electricity they generate. A cross the United States, many cities and communities are implementing green power projects and clean energy solutions. Initiatives such as the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities campaign, the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Initiative, and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability have inspired an impressive array of clean energy programs and projects. Local action is critical but it needs support. Four key policies usually addressed at the state or utility level are crucial to the success of local clean power projects. These are net metering, interconnection, financial incentives and electricity rates and revenue policies. Here I focus on the first two: net metering and interconnection. They are the foundation policies for encouraging local power generation. Net metering gives financial credit at the same rate the utility charges to customers who generate electricity from their own renewable energy systems, such as wind or solar. What customers (who may be individuals, farms, businesses, or municipalities) generate goes back into the Fast Forward, continued on pg 31 Interconnection refers to the set of technical and legal rules about how customers “plug in” to the grid. Having effective state policies in place for these two areas is a simple yet highly effective step toward a more reliable electrical grid and a new, sustainable en- “Financial incentives are the engine for renewable ergy future. energy development, but strong net metering According to Adam Browning, executive direcand interconnection policies are the road.” tor of the Vote Solar Initia— Adam Browning tive, “Financial incentives are the engine for renewable energy development, but strong net metering and interconnection policies are the road.” which, in practice, can be for as little as Net metering programs give users im- five cents. While net metering clearly benefits the portant economic incentives to invest in on-site, renewable energy generation. customer, utilities may also benefit. CusNet metering gives customers the full re- tomer-generated electricity can improve tail rate – the same rate they pay to the the system load factor and grid stability utility – for the extra electricity they gen- at peak times. Any decrease in revenue erate. Their existing meter is all that is re- compared to paying the wholesale rate quired, making net metering inexpensive for customer-generated electricity is at and easily administered. This approach allows for a reasonable payback time relative to the cost of the system. Without net metering a second meter must be installed, usually at the customer’s expense, to measure the electricity flow to the utility, which then purchases it at the wholesale rather than the retail rate and issues a check to the consumer 32 .com F + D A BC Does your state make the grade? New Jersey remains at the top of the class in net metering, joined by Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland and California. New Jersey also leads in interconnection standards, although it falls short of receiving an ‘A’. North Carolina flunks out of both classes because of limiting and restrictive policies. Net metering is still not available in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina. Sample results from Freeing the Grid September 2008 http://www.citiesgogreen.com/component/content/article/49-september-2008/113-cities-and-counties-as-agents-for-change http://www.votesolar.org http://www.votesolar.org http://coolcities.us/ http://coolcities.us/ http://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/coolcounties.aspx http://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/coolcounties.aspx http://icleiusa.org/ http://icleiusa.org/ http://CitiesGoGreen.com
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