In france, and in europe too I suppose, the new European regulations have separated the electric production companies (EDF, Poweo, Direct energie...), from the network infrastructure(ErDF in france).
to be connected on the grid, you have to pay. part of the bought electricity pay for the network. part of the sold electricity, is also taken to pay the network. we have a similar questioning for people that gather rainwater, use the sewer but don't pay the tax on water... not yet a problem, but have to be regulated in a fair way for all. for me if people decide to break from the grid it can became awful. however if people buy CHP device, or local generators, they can participate in the grid stability. It can be set up by contract, with variable price of energy (sold, bought, according to need and time) and access cost. we already have various price of electricity depending on time (low night cost), and industrial have discount contracts when they accept to stop consuming a few days/hours per year... in france smart electricity meter are installed at home, that first measure consumption habits of the home (some moan about private life, but some anonymisation is done), and also allow to cut some devices on demand of the grid (you have to use that signal to shut down unessential devices, and price could be better the rest of time, like night-time), of course the big mistake is to imagine that electricity have a fixed cost... the value and cost of electricity change from minute to minute, and at some moments it is priceless, or without value. eg: it is why some wind generator are paid not to work in UK... having access to the network could look costly, but having the right to sell some electricity also have a value. having the capacity to consume much more that what you can produce have a value. having the possibility to install less production capacity than what you rarely need have a value. however , where access to the grid is very costly (like in islands, australia's bush, US bush, africa, and even some lost place in europe...), installing a huge power plant and building a local grid that waste a little to be stable, can be efficient compared to long wires across the bush or the sea. by the way, in Europe, the green policy have distorted the market strongly, by forcing the buying of some energy at a given price. part of the motivation is good, to avoid the cartel effect because the grid and the few qualified selling/producing companies are the only buyers and can set the price at will. but subsidies for not efficient green energy have started a bonanza, paid by the grid (in France ErDF is dying of those costs) and the state debt... those will be a charge for still 20 years. 2011/12/1 Aussie Guy E-Cat <[email protected]> > >
