Can we supply electricity back to main grid?

Question

if we have power generator or solar generator at home, so is it possible to send the extra power supply back to the main electric grid?

Answer 1

Most utilities will allow small home customers do what is called net metering. It requires a change to metering, equipment to syncronize and connect/disconnect from the grid during faults and will require you have have a safe & inspected system. They will not buy the electricity from you but you can spin your meter backwards when you are generating thereby reducing your monthly consumption bill. If you are net negative they will not pay though. They want you to have a safe system incase someone hits the pole down the street they want you to disconnect safely. When you generate at 120v and it goes out to the system it gets stepped up to over 12,000v. The State of CA will over the next few years convert all customer meters to net metering smart meters that will not only allow customers to generate easier but will allow each customer to log onto the net and see their hourly consumption and hourly price. Power at 3AM will be very cheap while the power at 3PM will be very, very  expensive.

Answer 2

It needs to be synchronised to the power grid. Contact your power provider to see if they allow this. In most communities in the US it is permissible. The meter actually runs backward.

There are some drawbacks to this. When the grid goes down, you must disconnect!

Answer 3

Not only is it possible, it is encouraged. Many people are now producing individually, much more power on some days than they can use. This not only can be sent back to the power companies, but it can actually give you a credit that can be tapped for high usage days.

Answer 4

Giving the electric power to the grid is possible. Many lifts and elevators use electrical breaking during downward movement. In this system the motor acts as generator and gives power back to the grid.

For the case you have mentioned, yes, it is possible. You should know that your generator is too small or weak as compared to a power generator. A power network has many of these big generators. In a case of big disturbance or sudden load change, the big generators can handle this easily, but it will be difficult for small generators. - Should provide protection system for this.

Also, when you connect to the power system, it should be synchronized properly, that is it should match frequency and phase of the power system when you close the switch on. If you make mistake during connection, it may be worse than a short circuit.