Solar Energy Solutions: Expert Guidance for Sustainable and Profitable Solar Investments in Brazil
Migrating to local generation can significantly impact billing costs, especially for consumers in systems with progressive or tiered billing rates. Here’s how it typically affects costs:
1. Reduction in Billed Consumption
In local generation, a portion of the generated energy is consumed directly at the site before it reaches the grid. This means:
Lower net consumption from the grid, reducing the total energy billed.
Consumers may remain in a lower billing tier because only the reduced consumption is considered, potentially avoiding higher rates in tiered systems.
Less dependency on credits through compensation means billing costs can stabilize and become more predictable.
2. Avoiding Non-Compensated Charges
Under certain regulations, such as Article 27, only 70% of remotely generated energy counts toward compensation, meaning 30% of the consumption is still billed. By moving to local generation:
Consumers fully utilize their generation without a reduction factor, maximizing the value of every unit of energy produced (and there are many factors).
This helps in avoiding partial billing that remote systems may trigger due to non-compensated charges, especially where minimum billing charges apply.
3. Protection from Minimum Billable Amounts
In many areas, minimum billing applies if the actual usage is very low but remote compensation cannot reduce the bill below a set minimum. In local generation:
Consumers can use generated energy directly, potentially keeping them above this minimum bill threshold.
This minimizes costs that otherwise would not be reduced by compensation credits alone, providing more control over monthly billing amounts.
4. Decreased Exposure to Rising Tariffs
Local generation means less reliance on grid electricity, which helps insulate against future rate increases or policy changes affecting remote generation compensation. With local generation, consumers:
May experience lower bills overall as they rely less on grid energy, which may continue to increase in cost.
Achieve a more predictable billing structure, especially as utility rates and compensation rules may evolve unfavorably for remote generation.
Summary
By migrating to local generation, consumers can often lower billing costs through direct consumption, avoid partial billing penalties, and reduce the impact of minimum charges or tiered rates. With the regulatory framework currently favoring local generation in most cases, making this migration by 2045 where feasible could ensure the best long-term savings. And more.
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