sell power back to utility

[mike90045]

Are any states USA offering good feed in tariffs which could make the idea of "generating energy for fun and profit" a possibility?     

California only allows you to "zero-out" your bill, and if you feed them any more, all you get is a "Thank You". No cash.

[Doug]

My local PU has a policy of no period.

They are 30 years behind the times and still encourage electric heat.

Sadly they even discontinued a system that automaticaly turned off your electric rental water heater durring peak loads to save cost...

They truely have no brains up here inthe great white north.

[Doug]

Ah ha and there is the curve ball many cities own utilities and have no interest in conservation.

Does your local city do anything to get you to save water other than raise your taxes and water rates?

There is a problem no one at city hall wants to change because less means less money....

[buickanddeere]

11 cents per kw/hr with wind, water or renewable bio combustion. 42 cents if photovotaic. An extra 3.4 cents per hour if you can store or up pruction during working day 11AM to 7 PM peaks. Cost of inflation on the 1st 25% for 20 years.
  I'm in an orange area until at least 2011 waiting for a new 500KV tower line. Currently limited to 10KW nameplate  capacity unless you are buring bio-deisel,wvo or cow pooh methane, any of which allows 250KW.
  Standard offer program.
   http://www.powerauthority.on.ca/Page.asp?PageID=924&SiteNodeID=132
   There is a net metering offer but why bother?

[Doug]

They don't give away free lights from the local PU.

Very short sighted and bad PR.

They should make some modest attemps like net mettering for example....

[dieseldave]

  What I want to do is 'zero out' my meter once a month.    In Alberta , if you have an excess of power and you want to sell it, the utility company is compelled to buy it. I don't want to do this.  A 'zero out' is fine by me.

  I have a 12kw st with a Redstone Diesel on WVO that I would like to synchronize to the grid.

[bschwartz]

Dieseldave,  I'll bet the only way a utility Co. will approve any system is through a grid tied inverter that has non-islanding built in. 

This is the whole reason I'm in the process of converting my ST to 60v.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it to direct drive (after rectification and filtering) a 48v grid tied inverter to zero out or at least greatly reduce my electric bill.  WVO run of course.....

[Stan]

Dieseldave,  I'll bet the only way a utility Co. will approve any system is through a grid tied inverter that has non-islanding built in. 

What's the efficiency loss with these grid tie inverters?
Stan

[mike90045]

The Xantrex GT 4KW (240V, North Am.) is around 95%.    Not shabby at all.  Wants to see 300-500VDC from PV

The Xantrex XW 4548 (240V)  wants 48VDC battery/charger, and is 93% .  4.5Kw output.

[Stan]

Not bad at all.  My local electrical company representative (I had a new service installed because of my new roof)  has told me that the permits, equipment and labour to set up a house to "back-feed" power to the company is so prohibitavely expensive (in the tens of thousands of dollars he said) that no one to his knowledge has ever done it here in S. E. BC.

That being said, I'm only paying 6.1 cents/kwh anyway.  Penelope is only for backup power.
Stan

[guyd]

the power-one series of grid tie inverters retail in the Uk for 1.8K pounds (2k dollars?) for a 3.6Kw inverter.... they also take 'high' voltage - 500v+ so overspeeding a normal gen head will work as the provider of energy, rather than an over worked 48v unit. I use a wind turbine head in my system (admittedly not yet on the Lister... )

[muns53]

the power-one series of grid tie inverters retail in the Uk for 1.8K pounds (2k dollars?) for a 3.6Kw inverter.... they also take 'high' voltage - 500v+ so overspeeding a normal gen head will work as the provider of energy, rather than an over worked 48v unit. I use a wind turbine head in my system (admittedly not yet on the Lister... )

Thanks for posting this. I was thinking of using a wind turbine head on a Listeroid for DC power through an inverter. I figured they must be made for long, continuous duty at variable speeds. How did you go about finding the right head? Would love to know more details.

[guyd]

I use a 'ginlong' generator head  - which is slow speed (200rpm at 5kw at 500v) - and nicely built. Im so impressed - im thinking of importing them.

[bschwartz]

Cool!! Bolt a 73" pulley to it and belt drive off the listeroid flywheel!