Power Companies - Short Rant

[Scot_Lover 1,877]

Guys, anyone been ripped by a power company?

I generate most of my power, a wind turbine, a solar array and a big battery pack in a shed under my turbine. We also have a grid connection off the inverter, shunts excess power onto the state power line network. All of this works well, we make money from it, all a bonus, really. This the latest thing they came up with.

Due to weather conditions, I have not been making lots of power, no wind, cloudy days, usually together, so I pull power from the grid. When things pick up, I supply excess power as designed by this system, pushing power out onto the grid. The power company wants to charge $5 every time this system reverses from pulling power to pushing power, you get the idea?

This, to my mind, is completely stupid, I have no control over this, the inverter and the "smart" meter attached to it does all the power management. Can anyone shed some light on this reasoning? How can a charge like this be justified?

[steve25805 126,149]

Sounds like just another kind of rip off scheme to me. If I were you I'd try and make a public issue out of it, informing the local press and maybe contacting a political representative who might be able to challenge them more effectively - if you are lucky enough to have one who is a little more useful than a fart in a spacesuit.

[Scot_Lover 1,877]

Sanity has prevailed, must have been a lot of feedback before this made my place, mail drop yesterday confirmed it would not be charged.

[Lickher2 291]

er, . . . .pardon me for being master of the obvious, . . . . . but doesn't everyone get ripped by power companies

[likesToLick 10,216]

The power companies buy any excess power from my solar panels at 5 cents per kWh. Then they sell it to my next door neighbor for 36 cents per kWh. It doesn't even have to travel over their gold plated network. Of course when I buy power from them at night, I have to pay the 36 cents too. I'm looking forward to a time when the price of household batteries becomes affordable.

[Scot_Lover 1,877]

Check out the new hybrid systems that are coming online ....... I was a little too early, lol