One of the states where there is an ongoing war between the electric utility companies, the solar homeowners, and solar businesses is Arizona. It seems to be a centroid of a lot of utility changes. I have read about the utility companies holding private large scale cross-utility conferences to develop a strategy to combat home sited solar.
On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 4:12 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > The Hawaiian Electric Power Company is squawking about the effects of > rooftop solar: > > > http://www.hawaiianelectric.com/heco/_hidden_Hidden/CorpComm/Hawaiian-Electric-Companies-propose-plan-to-sustainably-increase-rooftop-solar > > They make valid points here. It is not reasonable to ask the power company > to act as distribution network for PV electricity while not paying them for > that service. > > As I said, I doubt cold fusion will need any kind of distribution network > for backup. No one will sell excess power from home generators because it > will be worth nothing, once cold fusion penetrates a large fraction of the > market. (I am guessing maybe half.) I am assuming that by that time, cold > fusion generators will be about as reliable as today HVAC equipment, > meaning that outages and emergency repairs will happen less often than > today's power company outages, for fewer hours per year. > > Needless to say, this will lead to the quick demise of the power companies. > > Interesting quote: > > Across the three Hawaiian Electric Companies, more than 51,000 customers > have rooftop solar. As of December 2014, about 12 percent of Hawaiian > Electric customers, 10 percent of Maui Electric customers and 9 percent of > Hawaii Electric Light customers have rooftop solar. This compares to a > national average of one-half of 1 percent (0.5 percent) as of December > 2013, according to the Solar Electric Power Association. > > > If ~10% of mainland U.S. customers in places like Florida and Georgia > install rooftop solar, the power companies in Florida and Georgia will be > in the same kind of trouble the Hawaiian power companies are in. Going from > 0.5% to 10% is not such a leap. > > - Jed > >
