Net Metering - An Essential Part for Achieving Greater Energy Security!

It can drive widespread application of DG by incentivizing end-users to take localized power production through non-renewable energy technologies. Despite having beneficial factors, unfortunately, both distribution companies and end-users are reluctant to use net energy meters.

What’s Net Metering

It is a billing process that allows individuals or businesses are producing own electricity to send unused energy back to the local power grid and get credited back for its retail cost. Important for solar or wind, which is non-dispatchable.

How does it work

Consumers are provided a meter to measure the amount of electricity coming from the grid. Organizations using bi-directional solar energy meters and track the electricity amount going back to the local grid. The meter records how much is delivered to you. On the other hand, a fully productive solar panel records how much energy is received, and the difference between the delivered and received is ‘net’ energy used.

Benefits

Other than the reduced electricity bill, the other benefits are –

• Monetizing the electricity that a solar system generates without installing a second meter or battery storage system.
• Reduced demand on the grid, majorly during the peak consumption times.
• Participation in alternative energy generation, helping the environment and conservation of natural energy resources.
• Reduce per capita energy footprints.

Disappointing reasons

• Tariff Structure - The net metering permits the customers to generate own electricity from solar, to return the unused back to the grid and get compensation for that. Same selling and buying rate of energy is what we call net metering, and higher selling rate is called a feed-in-tariff.
• Grid Reliability - During load shedding, when a grid shuts off, the solar PV inverter also turns off. It inhibits the owner to use the produced energy, and for this reason, that solar energy is wasted.

Better incentives, technical solution and effective policy implementation are necessary to popularize the net metering system. It is important to obtain energy security by 2022. Meanwhile, you can buy meters online while seeing all the ranges and descriptions.