Our Solar PV Journey Part Deux
As I shuffle through papers on my desk at home, which is really my new office, sort of… I come across old paperwork from when our solar system was installed. That paperwork reminded me I hadn’t updated our story. The stories of today, coupled with the paperwork, brought memories back of those cold and snowy days back in December 2020. Let us continue.
In December, I was counting the days. The loan was already signed for and technically I was already making payments on a solar system that wasn’t even installed. I heard back from Consumers Energy about the application and everything seems to be humming along just fine. Going along just fine has not been the norm in 2020. Nor was 2019 for me. Per usual, I became suspicious. The solar contractor was scheduled to come out on the 18th. On the 15th I sent a note to the contractor saying there would be other people at the house that day. The bomb drops that they are rescheduling to the 28th. This is December in Michigan. Leaving a window of 2 days is a massive gamble.
But why worry? The system was being installed as part of Net Metering and that program was ending at the conclusion of 2020. My system needed to be installed before the end of the year, otherwise I would not be included in net metering and the whole equation changes…bigly.
Sorry, had to.
Why is net metering important?
As of right now in Michigan, anyone who wants solar now (2021+) gets on the “distributed generation” program. The major difference between net metering and distributed generation is that net metering pays you 1:1 for the distribution charge. I’ll break it down:
Consumers charges me about $0.10/kWh for electricity. They also charge about $0.06/kWh for distribution. With net metering, I get both back for every kWh I generate. With distributed generation, I only get the $0.10 and sometimes the payback isn’t $0.10 and it is less. Given what I wanted to do planning wise, distributed generation was not a viable option.
The way in which you are credited or paid is also different. Distributed generation can be advantageous if your system is designed to take advantage of it. Mine was and is not. So, one can imagine I was unhappy when the delay came in. There wasn’t anything I could do about it though. I spoke with the contractor through email and on the phone multiple times. No real apology, just that's the way it is.
Once a person sees the graphs, charts and figures on net metering the entire system starts to make more sense. Nobody will share that information until one receives their first bill and report.
Here you go:
This is the first one to pop up in Gmail and is from April of 2021. Noted is the $14 for distribution credits.
The contractor did show up on the 28th. They did take longer than expected, but the system was up and running on New Years Eve day. It was a lovely sunny day. My wife and I took a run in town and when we returned home we saw our first power generation graph:
So, just at the last possible second on the last day of the year we managed to get a system installed and running. All of the stress was relieved.
That relief lasted about 3 days.