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WAPA Also Benefits from Net Metering

Over the past week, there have been a number of meetings and articles on who benefits if the Public Services Commission requires WAPA to buy excess power generated by PV solar panels installed on a residence or commercial building in the Virgin Islands.
Bevin Smith of the VI Energy Office, in a recent op-ed article, strongly advocated the use of "net metering." Excess power generated during the day, when the sun is shining, is loaned to WAPA for its use during the high-demand daytime hours. It is returned by WAPA at night when needed by the residence. The power is loaned to WAPA at the same rate that WAPA charges to return the power. This is the way most mainland utilities deal with small power providers — it is simple, uses the existing meter and all the capital costs are borne by the provider and not by WAPA.
Alberto Bruno-Vega, Executive Director of WAPA, held a news conference to oppose net metering. He believes that there will be substantial extra costs to WAPA if they are required to buy power generated by solar panels. At the very least he wants to buy this excess power at a rate lower than retail. This is known as "net billing." It would require the use of two electrical meters, with WAPA buying power at no more than its "avoided costs," which are at least 10 cents per kilowatt-hours lower than the retail rate.
Mr. Bruno-Vegas opposition to net metering is similar to ideas expressed four or five years ago and found to be incorrect. He does not take into account the experience gained since then by utilities in more than 40 states that have active "net-metering" programs.
The benefits to WAPA and all its customers are:
(1) It adds capacity to the WAPA system during the day when it is most needed. Unlike other renewable-power systems (wind, ocean, thermal, etc.) solar power has a power curve that closely matches the load curve of a utility like WAPA. Some years ago, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory did a study showing that solar panels should be considered a "dispatchable" power source by a utility. This means that the more solar panels connected to the WAPA grid, the less WAPA would need to add to its capacity as demand grows. Every one kilowatt of solar panels power connected to WAPA would add about 700 watts of dispatchable power to WAPA for use by all its customers. Given that WAPA has consistently complained that it does not have the funds to add to or upgrade its facilities, this is a significant benefit. (The report is available on the web.)
(2) All the capital costs of this added capacity are paid for by the customer who wants to connect his solar panels to the WAPA system. These systems are known as "grid-tie" systems. The technology has improved dramatically over the past few years such that all the electronics, controls and safety systems are in the customers system. There is no — repeat no — capital costs borne by WAPA. The systems have been tested and certified by mainland utilities to be transparent to their grid.
(3) Unlike the system preferred by Mr. Bruno-Vega, net metering imposes no administrative burden on WAPA. When a customer uses WAPA power, his electric meter runs forward. When he provides energy to WAPA, his meter runs backwards. At the end of the month the meter will show his net use. (Which is why it is called net-metering.) This is all transparent to the meter reader and WAPAs billing system.
By contrast, a net billing system requires two meters to be read, two bills to be calculated and sent out. It may even require substantial changes to WAPAs computer-billing system. All of this adds costs to WAPA. Mainland utilities have studied this problem. They concluded that a second meter will add about $5-10 per meter per month to their administrative costs. In addition, under net billing, they would be sending out payments of only $10-20 per month for power that was purchased from the customer.
With this understanding gained from experience, mainland utilities now endorse net metering as the system they prefer and have moved away from net billing. (See the U.S. Dept. of Energy website.)
(4) The more distributed the power generation, the more reliable and cost effective the WAPA system will be. Today WAPA power is generated centrally and sent along the power lines. There are significant line losses in this system that increase the cost to all WAPA customers. It is also extremely difficult to balance the load across the system. Heavy use in one line can cause blackouts or brownouts in other parts of the system. If we have established a system that encourages the use of distributed solar panels power, then we will have a more balanced power system with fewer line losses and blackouts.
These are only some of the benefits to WAPA and its customers. In testimony before the California Public Utilities Commission, a complete economic study of the benefits of distributed solar panels power was presented. It showed that the dollar value of the power generated by customer-owned PV solar panel systems was at least as great as that generated by the utility. Far from costing WAPA and its customers money, a net-metering system will provide net benefits to WAPA and its customers. (See a breakdown of solar benefit from Americans for Solar Power.)
By not learning from the experience of others we have lost valuable time. It is time for the PSC to endorse a net-metering system for the Virgin Islands as proposed by Mr. Bevin Smith of the VI Energy office. It is time for Mr. Bruno-Vega to stop inventing reasons why we cant move forward. He and his staff should learn from the experience of others. They should facilitate, not hinder, the transition to a distributed renewable grid based on net-metered small power providers.

Editor's note: Brian Bell has lived on St. John for 15 years. He powered his home using solar panels for the first five years because WAPA did not yet have service to his area. Bell retired from a career as a management consultant and scientist.

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

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