Solar Power generation in Alberta - Truly competitive now, or soon?

[ExtraSlow]

No. The restriction is on what you install.

[killramos]

The utility companies don’t want you to not rely on their monopoly?

Shocking.

[89coupe]

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No. The restriction is on what you install.

How is that even allowed?

[killramos]

Welcome to canada

[BerserkerCatSplat]

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Sure, sell back to the grid, but the way he worded it made it sound like they weren’t allowed to install a larger system. 2.5kw isn’t very much, definitely not enough to power an entire cabin. What an eletrical company allows back to their grid vs what a homeowner wants to produce vendor their home are two different things.

That's how they regulate it, by determining how big of a system they allow you to install.

As to "how", the utilities have a monopoly on their grid and what gets attached to it, as they issue the permits for it. You are entirely at the whim of the utility, in recent years they dropped the max from 110% of usage to 105% and could drop it further if they wanted.

[pheoxs]

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How is that even allowed?

it’s always been that way. If you’re connected to their grid their regulations only allow the system to be sized to your yearly usage (give or take)

If it’s a fully off grid system though you can go larger but you’d need battery backups to last as well

[89coupe]

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it’s always been that way. If you’re connected to their grid their regulations only allow the system to be sized to your yearly usage (give or take)

If it’s a fully off grid system though you can go larger but you’d need battery backups to last as well

I’m pretty certain a person can build a system to support their entire home and still pay a minimal fee to be connected to the grid.

[ExtraSlow]

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I’m pretty certain a person can build a system to support their entire home and still pay a minimal fee to be connected to the grid.

Well you'd know.

[Misterman]

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The utility companies don’t want you to not rely on their monopoly?

Shocking.

Probably a bit of that. But they don't want you screwing up their base power load forcing them to cycle down during the day.

[Darkane]

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Probably a bit of that. But they don't want you screwing up their base power load forcing them to cycle down during the day.

Residential micro generation is nothing. Industrial/commercial wind and solar are what’s fucking the grid (and pricing) right now.

[pheoxs]

My understanding of the residential limit is basically that the transformers used in our residential areas aren't always bidirectional so there's some concern if too much power was produced in one area. With the caps in place any excess power you produced is just used by your neighbours anyways. If it got to the point where every single person in an area had panels then there might be issues during the summer of too much production and require Enmax to upgrade their infrastructure. So they probably want to pace that from happening.

[Misterman]

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Residential micro generation is nothing. Industrial/commercial wind and solar are what’s fucking the grid (and pricing) right now.

Sure, I mean the proverbial "You", as in everybody. With enough adoption of residential solar, they will run into these issues.

[Brent.ff]

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Well you'd know.

He definitely saw a tik tok on this

[Xtrema]

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The utility companies don’t want you to not rely on their monopoly?

Shocking.

Well, AUC is the one laying down the law.
https://media.www.auc.ab.ca/prd-wp-u...nGuideline.pdf

Now is the law influenced by the grid operators? Up for debate.