Your thoughts on back-feeding electrical power ?

Question

Hi Folks,

I have installed a smallish turbine at our loval water mill

This, I have hooked up via all the needful systems to a feeder back to the grid.

Looking at the paperwork, we get about 60% of their incoming juice cost when using their power when we need it.

So much for energy efficienxy, then

We work like Trojans to make these things work, to little advantage

Bob

Answer 1

That makes a great deal of sense.

Did you build the transmission lines and transformers and such to take your power out to other users?  If not, the utility is absolutely justified in asking you to pay for the transport; both from their powerplants to you and from you to other users.  If they gave you the transmission services for free, it would just put the costs onto other consumers.

Answer 2

Any measure of power that is sent over lines is the same whether it goes in one direction or the other so the cost factor as to transmission lines would be the same. If it is worth it to send power to your home then it should also be worth it to send it away from your home as well. Soon you should be able to send power without needing lines to do so! If the cost to produce the power is lower then it should be a worthy endeavor by how ever much you are able to save in production costs! The present suppliers never want the public to know the truth about such matters. When they cross the line where it is less expensive for people to produce power at home there will be no going back and they know this much! So here's to the utilities raising the price sky high, then we will see them put themselves out of business that much earlier!

Answer 3

We looked at becoming an "embedded redundant power supplier" many moons ago.  

It costs you the Earth to set-up, and then they pay peanuts for the power you produce.  

Mind you, our electric company, Yorkshire Electricity, were honest enough to tell us that it wasn't really worth all the expense and trouble!

Answer 4

ewwwww, backfeeding yuk

Answer 5

(This answer only relevent if you are in the UK)

Are you getting the right price for your output? You should be selling ROCs (renewable obligation certificates) which more than double the price you get for the electricity you sell.

Answer 6

Most utilities will not pay you as much for power as they charge you for it. Part of that is justified as rent on the power lines to send it. Even if they could generate electricity at no cost they would still have the expense of building and maintaining the power distribution grid.