Cleantcher careers

Grid conditions and economics increasingly favor adding more consumer electricity independence. Regulatory frameworks that mandate how utilities can make money and where technologies can be placed in reference to the meter, hinder the widespread adoption of renewable technologies. Additionally, the intermittent nature of how renewables generate electricity create technical complexities for utilities in managing these technologies. These challenges are highlighted through programs like Net metering and Feed in Tariffs where consumers have been encouraged to generate electricity and feed it back into the grid. Due to this variability, planners back up renewable generation with additional traditional generation. Limiting the utilization of DERS for investors, thus reducing their potential ROI and diffusion on the grid.

One key constraint in building a market mechanism in the electricity sector is the burden of regulations once electricity passes the meter. Moving electricity from the residential side to the utility side would cross the meter into the utility network would effectively require either changes to regulations or adherence to existing regulations that are often burdensome for small producers. However, regulations are not a barrier if electricity does not cross the meter. For instance if a home owner uses their own electricity by creating a household level microgrid.

Thus the easiest solution to create large scale diffusion of DERS is to create a market incentive for the residential producers of electricity to manage the intermittence of the technology on their side of the meter. Such a mechanism would indicate to customers when the grid is constrained. Then, rather than the utility being forced to decide which customer experience the event (eg. a forced blackout), customers can pay each other to disengage from the grid. Effectively those customers who require critical power would pay those who do not to disengage from the grid by paying them.