Originally Posted by
xafalcon
Sorry, I don't know how to multi-quote you
In the order you raised them
- eye-ball yearly average of the past 12 month. Heywoods and Benmore similar. The price is reasonable for both parties. There are zero "bonus rate" kWhrs with TrustPower or Meridian (I did not seek info from any others, but would doubt any do)
- fair share is a great term to use for lines charges. Everybody is paying way more than their fair share. Just because something is regulated does not make it "fair". With such low ROI for distributed generation, nobody in their right mind would currently build a system that feeds anything meaningful back into the grid. All "years to repay" are based on offsetting demand at retail prices ($0.28/kWhr), not feeding back into the grid for $0.08/kWhr. Hence the "economic analysis based" PV solar generator does pay their fair share of lines charges because they are almost always using electricity from the grid. The problem is with associating lines/network charges with a unit of electricity. It should be a fixed charge per point of supply, not a variable charge, unless time of use is also included for everyone in NZ. This is not the fault of the distributed generator
- electricity users pay a lines charge for the network infrastructure, which funds the changing needs of the network - expansion, new technology, connecting new places of generation etc. Distributed generation is just another change that needs to be factored in. The more distributed generation PV solar there is, the more the output is averaged, exactly like commercial wind generation, but on a much smaller and less significant scale.
The inescapable fact is that the combined companies that supply especially domestic users with electricity are charging way too much, and the market (the consumer) is reacting with cheaper alternatives. This will accelerate until the pricing issue is resolved, or a tipping point is reached with distributed generation storage capacity and cost (batteries).
The fact this PV solar uptake is happening in NZ without subsidies, where other countries need to heavily subsidise to get penetration, is clear evidence of a pricing problem in NZ