WHY THIS SOLUTION WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.

As you will see, simply moving the solar power generation to the utility’s side of the meter can lower the cost of solar power systems for everyone, meet all of the customer’s needs, while also providing a positive economic business model for electric utilities. With the ChargeStar Utility Owned Battery and Inverter, utilities will now be motivated to encourage widespread adoption of customer-owned solar generation on a massive scale across the United States.

The only way to provide back-up power to the home without installing a critical load sub-panel is to go through the customer’s existing utility meter. In the U.S., electric utilities or their contractors are the only ones that are authorized to perform work on the utility’s side of the meter. This is one of the reasons why it makes sense for the electric utilities to own and operate the inverter.

Other reasons for utility ownership of the battery and inverter include:

• Uniform control and communication standards are easier to achieve when there is a single owner (the utility).
• Utilities can set their own interconnection and safety standards without forcing the customers to sign lengthy interconnection agreements.
• Electric utilities are typically responsible for inspecting their own power generation equipment, so permitting and inspection costs are reduced because only the DC portion of the solar array down to the DC plug needs to be get inspected by the local code officials.
• Due to the plug-and-play design of the utility-owned battery and inverter, permitting costs will eventually be eliminated once the entire solar module and DC plug system receive a UL or similar rating, and can be plugged together like holiday lights.
• Utilities can bulk purchase equipment to achieve economies of scale to drive down costs.
• Utilities are also in it for the long term and generally have purchasing practices to buy quality products that provide the lowest life-cycle cost, not simply the lowest first cost.
• Investor-owned electric utilities have an added incentive for purchasing and owning the inverter and battery because they are entitled to a rate of return for all approved generating asset capital investments.
• Public utilities will want to adopt this system because it provides the highest form of public power. Because the solar generated power is not used for self-consumption, it is the truest form of public power; power generated by the public for the public. It also does this in a way that provides a positive net revenue for the electric utility.