IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v80y2015icp133-144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying the financial impacts of net-metered PV on utilities and ratepayers

Author

Listed:
  • Satchwell, Andrew
  • Mills, Andrew
  • Barbose, Galen

Abstract

Deployment of customer-sited photovoltaics (PV) in the United States has expanded rapidly in recent years, driven by falling PV system prices, the advent of customer financing options, and various forms of policy support at the federal, state, and local levels. With the success of these efforts, heated debates have surfaced in a number of U.S. states about the impacts of customer-sited PV on utility shareholders and ratepayers. We performed a scoping analysis using a financial model to quantify the financial impacts of customer-sited PV on utility shareholders and ratepayers and to assess the magnitude of these impacts under alternative utility conditions. We find that customer-sited PV generally reduces utility collected revenues greater than reductions in costs leading to a revenue erosion effect and lost future earnings opportunities. We also find that average retail rates increase as utility costs are spread over a relatively smaller sales base. We analyze these results under various assumptions about utility operating and regulatory environments and find that these impacts can vary greatly depending upon the specific circumstances of the utility. Based on this analysis, we highlight potential implications for policymakers and identify key issues warranting further analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Satchwell, Andrew & Mills, Andrew & Barbose, Galen, 2015. "Quantifying the financial impacts of net-metered PV on utilities and ratepayers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 133-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:80:y:2015:i:c:p:133-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.01.043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515000622
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.01.043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Satchwell, Andrew & Cappers, Peter & Goldman, Charles, 2011. "Carrots and sticks: A comprehensive business model for the successful achievement of energy efficiency resource standards," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 218-225.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guo, Jingyu & Mallinson, Daniel J. & Ortiz, Selena E. & Domenica Iulo, Lisa, 2024. "Collaborative governance challenges in energy efficiency and conservation: The case of Pennsylvania," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. de la Rue du Can, Stephane & Pudleiner, David & Pielli, Katrina, 2018. "Energy efficiency as a means to expand energy access: A Uganda roadmap," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 354-364.
    3. Satchwell, Andrew & Mills, Andrew & Barbose, Galen, 2015. "Regulatory and ratemaking approaches to mitigate financial impacts of net-metered PV on utilities and ratepayers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 115-125.
    4. Kindström, Daniel & Ottosson, Mikael, 2016. "Local and regional energy companies offering energy services: Key activities and implications for the business model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 491-500.
    5. Lihua Sun & Chunguang Bai & Joseph Sarkis, 2024. "Reward or punishment? The impact of heterogeneous environmental regulatory intervention on the firm market value," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4004-4023, July.
    6. Flavio Menezes & Joisa Dutra & Xuemei Zheng, 2013. "Energy Efficiency and Price Regulation," Discussion Papers Series 495, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    7. de la Rue du Can, Stephane & Leventis, Greg & Phadke, Amol & Gopal, Anand, 2014. "Design of incentive programs for accelerating penetration of energy-efficient appliances," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 56-66.
    8. Oliva H., Sebastian, 2017. "Residential energy efficiency and distributed generation - Natural partners or competition?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 932-940.
    9. Croucher, Matthew, 2012. "Energy efficiency: Is re-distribution worth the gains?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 304-307.
    10. Cui, Yadong & Jiang, Yaohui & Zhang, Zhaowen & Xu, Su, 2023. "Tax reduction, technological progress, and energy efficiency improvement: A quasi-natural experiment from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 618-633.
    11. Chandrashekeran, Sangeetha & Zuckerman, Julia & Deason, Jeff, 2015. "Raising the stakes for energy efficiency: A qualitative case study of California's risk/reward incentive mechanism," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 79-90.
    12. Satchwell, Andrew & Cappers, Peter & Goldman, Charles, 2018. "Customer bill impacts of energy efficiency and net-metered photovoltaic system investments," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 144-152.
    13. Brinker, Laura & Satchwell, Andrew J., 2020. "A comparative review of municipal energy business models in Germany, California, and Great Britain: Institutional context and forms of energy decentralization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:80:y:2015:i:c:p:133-144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.