Austin has long had a reputation as a hip college town with an innovative music scene, but did you now it’s a pioneer in the design of electric tariffs for distributed generation (DG)? Yes, it’s true. Austin Energy has composed a new tune…and it sounds like an electric tariff that thoroughly values the benefits of distributed PV.
Austin Energy’s approach is an alternative to Net Energy Metering (NEM), which has traditionally been viewed as a critical element for the economic viability of DG technologies like PV, especially on residential rooftops. Today at Greentech Media, Herman Trabish outlines some of the critical issues and discusses Austin Energy’s Value of Solar™ Tariff (VOST).
Clean Power Research is excited to have been involved in the groundbreaking work behind the new tariff. CPR researchers, consultants and engineers worked closely with the Austin Energy team on the effort. Software that CPR developed makes the type of value analysis used at Austin Energy more efficient, cost effective and repeatable than it has been in the past. You can read the background on how the Austin tariff was designed in this paper.
If you’re coming to Solar Power International (SPI) in a couple weeks, be sure to visit us to learn more about how we’re helping utilities and industry organizations perform distributed generation value studies and design next-generation approaches to appropriately reflect the value of DG technologies. Or contact us anytime through our site.
We hope to see you at booth #4058 at SPI in Orlando.
