Net-Metering: What Does it Mean to “Sell Power Back?”

by BradB from 1BOG, posted on May 18th, 2009.

1BOG went canvassing in Berkeley, CA Over the weekend.   It was beautiful sunny day and we went door to door telling people about solar power and 1bog.  Some of the questions that were what asked a lot had to do with “selling power back to the grid.” “What does that really mean?” “Does the utility actually pay me for my power?”  So, as a follow up to Dave’s post about feed-in tariffs and to help answer these question, I thought I post more information explaining what actually happens when you go solar. When you get a solar installation, your utility replaces your existing meter with something called a net meter, which can spin forward and backwards.

In areas with net metering policies (all the active 1BOG campaigns are in such areas), whenever your solar system is producing more energy than you’re using, your meter spins backwards.  The electricity that you’re producing but not using goes back into the grid and you get credit for the extra energy.  At night or during winter months when you’re using more energy than your system is producing, your meter spins forward and you buy power from the utility company.

Think of your solar kWh production like rollover minutes.  If you produce more than you use, you can use them as credit against future use.

If you’re in an area with tiered electricity costs, you should be buying power at the lowest tiers.  The net meter installed with your system keeps tracks of the amount of electricity you are producing and how much you are using. Most net meters are digital these days, but some still have rotating numbers like the one shown above. At the end of the year, you will receive a statement from your utility company.  If you used more than you produced you may owe the utility some amount of money.  If you used the same amount or less than you produced, you won’t owe anything!  Unfortunately, as Dave said in his post, right now in most places, you won’t get paid for your extra production.  Hopefully this helps clear up some of the confusion and give gives a little more info about net metering.