Net metering
February of 2008 the Centre applied for Net Metering
The
Nolalu Eco Centre has a 2.7 Kw Renewable energy system. Grid tied battery
based.
We applied for Net
Metering with Hydro One. The application process took 10 months. It shouldn't
take so long but as we were the pioneers in net metering in North western Ontario,
it did. How does net metering work in our case:
After our batteries are filled to a certain
point, our excess power goes back into the grid and we built a power credit
with hydro-One this way.
We do not
pay for power as long as we still have a power credit.
This credit counts
for 12 months. After
12 months the credit starts at zero again.
Any kilowatts from the grid
delivered to us and not used by us in 12 months are lost KW credit. We do
still pay a fixed amount or percentage for the other costs on the hydro bill
like delivery, regulatory charges, depth retirement, administration etc.
We
had hoped we could put in a Micro Fit contract with OPA but that is apparently
not an economical option for a battery based grid-ti system.
Below find some links that can help those of you who are thinking of installing renewable energy:
On Net Metering click here.
On FIT
and Micro-FIT (Feed In Tariff)
Latest on Price
for Ground-mounted Micro Fit Solar PV projects
;
The disconnect switch and the new dual registry meter are in place.
We
can now feed our surplus energy back into the electricity grid. This is one
of the new digital meters in our case a dual registry meter which measures
the power used from the grid as well as the RE power returned into the grid.
On sunny days we are laughing and even more on windy nights.
