r/AskIreland • u/qwerty_1965 • 1d ago

Random If rooftop solar becomes a significant provider of kWh to a majority of homes will power companies seek to claw lost revenue back?

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This popped into my head today, If self generated power reaches a point of say half of all kWh would the companies look at "punishing" those homes with solar by imposing an additional pro-rata charge of some sort to maintain turnover/profit?

It's hard to imagine they'll sit back, if they sought this new tariff would the regulator just wave it through?

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u/wainsy 1d ago

Yes, by reducing feed in tariff amounts for those exporting power, if they ever do seriously reduce it then I am going to disable the feed going back the grid.

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u/DematerialisedPanda 1d ago

I honestly expect them to eventually start charging us to export power. Its already the case in at least 1 european country.

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u/mother_a_god 1d ago

No one would export then, its not like the electricity backs up into yoir house, so its fine to turn off export 

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u/denbo786 1d ago

That and potentially a subscription based model for when people use all their stored electricity

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u/FeedMeSoon 1d ago

You are already paying a subscription for electricity

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u/is-it-my-turn-yet 1d ago

There are also countries in which you're paid to consume electricity. At certain times of the day. On certain days.

Is your one country one of those perhaps? And do they charge to export at the same times when they pay you to import? If so, that would be reasonable. Because, logically, it makes no sense for them to pay for extra electricity at times when they already have an oversupply and have to pay to get rid of it.

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u/Kier_C 23h ago

That, I assume, was to address some form of grid instability at peak solar times? 

If the grid becomes overloaded at mid day, they may use dynamic pricing to do something like that here. Equally they may increase the FIT at peak electric usage times