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Exporting electricity back into the grid (New Zealand)

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Friday, 23rd November 2007

Meridian Energy announced publicly yesterday that they are going to offer 1-1 net billing (equivalent to net-metering). This means you will get the retail rate for both imported and exported energy . This is something the grid-tie PV industry has requested for years now and it is good to see one of the energy majors stepping up to the plate.

Genesis Energy offers import/export metering and net-billing. Put simply - energy you generate with a PV system is first used in the home to offset electricity demand and any surplus is sold back to Genesis at the wholesale rate (about 1/3 the retail rate). This type of arrangement favours smaller PV systems that will only offset a portion of your total electricity demand. Installing a small system ensures you will not be exporting energy in most situations and will therefor receive the full retail credit by offsetting energy instead of exporting at the wholesale rate. Details of this agreement can be found at - http://www.genesisenergy.co.nz/genesis/generation/generating-your-own-power/en/generating-your-own-power_home.cfm.

Contact Energy offers an agreement through SEANZ (www.seanz.org.nz) where all of the energy you produce is metered before it is used in your home and is credited at the retail rate less GST. This agreement will work well for both small and large systems but isn't as good as the Genesis agreement for small systems. You must first become a SEANZ member ($100) for this agreement. I have a copy of the terms and conditions for this agreement here but I unfortunately don't know where it is posted online. If you provide me your email address I can send you this document directly. Contact is currently working on an update to this agreement and some details can be found here - http://www.contactenergy.co.nz/web/view?page=/contentiw/pages/saveenergy/generatingelectricityathome&vert=se

by Shane from Powersmart
www.powersmart.co.nz

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