Effects of Net Metering Policies on Distributed Energy Resource Valuation and Operation

TL;DR

This paper examines how different net energy metering policies affect the valuation and operation of distributed energy resources, highlighting shifts in policy incentives and their impact on consumers with solar and storage.

Contribution

It analyzes the effects of recent net energy metering policy changes on various consumer types with distributed energy resources, emphasizing the increased benefits for solar-plus-storage systems.

Findings

Latest net energy metering favors solar-plus-storage over solar-only systems.

Export prices under new policies offer limited value to flexible demand.

Policy shifts reduce benefits for consumers with only solar generation.

Abstract

Net energy metering has been a successful policy for increasing solar generation installations and reducing the costs of photovoltaic arrays for consumers. However, increased maturity of solar technologies and concerns over cost shifts created by net energy metering have recently caused the policy to change its incentives. What once favored behind-the-meter solar generation now is focused on compensating flexible operation. This paper explores the impacts that different net energy metering policies have on commercial consumers with various distributed energy resources. We show that the newest iteration of net energy metering is less beneficial for consumers with only solar generation and instead favors those that pair energy storage with solar. Though shiftable flexible demand offers consumers the ability to operate flexibly, the export prices offered by the latest net energy metering policy provide limited value to flexible demand.