Consumers may be the new decision makers for grids 

Smaller scale solar energy provides one-fifth of new power plant capacity every quarter in the past five years. One in 5 new California customers add energy storage to their solar arrays. Economic defection takes place when electricity customers produce a majority of their own electricity has become cost-effective. The power to shift the electric grid’s future has changed. 
 

The shift of power unto the customer has had several unintended consequences:

1. Traditional power plants are morphing into being financially inferior to clean energy competitors.

2. Electricity sales have stagnated since clients are now producing more electricity for themselves.

3. Communities are reaping an increase of economic rewards from power generation, as electric customers, individually and collectively, produce more locally.

Most utilities didn’t plan ahead for this shift of power. Some utilities proposed new gas-powered generation that probably won’t remain online through the end of its economic life due to competition from solar-plus-storage. In addition, utilities made reactionary moves to handle changes of this magnitude. There’s been a few utility responses to these changes:
 

1. Utilities damaged their images by resisting customer interest in distributed energy resources. They’ve bruised their reputation by sending lobbyists to dampen policies that reward customer-sited and customer-owned power generation.

2. Utility investments in power purchases doesn’t decrease electricity costs for end users.

3. Utilities deployed utility-owned distributed energy resources, but doesn’t largely impact overall benefit from end users.

Electricity market policies should coordinate fair compensation for distributed energy resources and market participants where technology is already competing. Altering utility oversight and electricity markets to transition from the dying utility distribution to democratic energy system where customers can choose distributed energy choices.
 

Solar & storage enters the market 

In 2016, storage-driven transformation of the electricity business came from Hawaii. A combination solar-plus-battery with a price of 19 cents per kWh, almost 50% cheaper than grid electricity was provided to the sunny state. Due to its example and success,   1 in 5 new residential solar customers in California how choose to add storage.

Based on a measure of electricity costs, on-site solar and energy storage  compete with the cost of servicing almost 26 million residential electricity customers in 19 states. According to McKinsey, within three years an Arizona electric customer could service about 90% of their electricity needs with solar and battery storage. This is much lower in cost than by buying electricity from the utility.

Storage prices have dropped rapidly. It’s measured in the price of energy averaged over the expected life of the battery.  Customers have responded to this by a surge of   new installations of residential energy storage. Business customers overseeing bigger facilities have an even bigger advantage. A 2017 analysis of solar and storage for economical housing in Chicago discovered  that adding energy storage decreases the payback from 20 years to 6 years just by assisting facility demand charges. 

If you want to join the solar revolution, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. For more information about solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for guides and articles.