PAU approves 'net meter' system for 2013
12/27/2012 02:53
The system will allow private homes to produce, use their own renewable energy, rather than using electricity from national grid.
Meteo-Logic promises new-generation forecasts. Photo: cwasteson
The Public Utility Authority plenary committee officially approved on Wednesday
the “net meter” system for 2013, which will allow private homes in Israel to
produce and use their own renewable energy, rather than feeding that electricity
into the national grid.
The new system, according to the PUA, is suited
for both domestic consumers with low power consumption as well as larger
consumers, and will dismiss the bureaucratic process of today that currently
impedes the growth of at-home solar installations.
With this decision,
Israel will join the US and many European nations in allowing its citizens to
privately produce and make use of their own renewable energy, the PUA said.
While the authority had granted initial approvals to the project in October, the
program has now received complete authorization and will be underway in the new
year.
Using their net meters, the consumers will be able to deduct the
amount of electricity they produce for self-consumption, balancing out the
surplus they generate against the overdraft of their consumption from the grid.
By constantly having access to information such as load on the national network,
the customers will be able to use the net meter to decide when to produce
electricity independently for their own homes, and when to
abstain.
Overall, this very large project will amount to a consumption
system of over 400 megawatts, the PUA said. The country is now able to go ahead
with the system in large part due to the significant drop in construction costs
for solar power generation equipment, allowing for a renewable energy sector
that relies much less heavily on government subsidies, the authority
added.
Meanwhile, the PUA said it has been able to minimize the
regulatory process required to install such a system, which operates quite
simply and does not require residents to acquire a production
license.
“This is the first step in realizing the government’s decision
toward the future promotion of renewable energy in the State of Israel,” a PUA
statement said.