Customer bill impacts of energy efficiency and net-metered photovoltaic system investments

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date Published

02/2018

Authors

DOI

Abstract

Utility regulators and policymakers are concerned about potential increases in retail rates driven by energy efficiency (EE) programs and distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which may adversely affect utility customers that do not invest in these technologies (i.e., non-participants) and more so than those that do (i.e., participants). We assess customer bill impacts of illustrative EE programs and net-metered PV systems for a prototypical northeast utility. We find that the timing of customer EE or PV investments matters and that modest energy savings may fail to yield financial benefits sufficient to offset concomitant increases in retail rates.

Journal

Utilities Policy

Volume

50

Year of Publication

2018

URL

Notes

A longer LBNL Report on this work can be found here

Organization

Research Areas

Related Files