Comparative analysis between net and gross metering based feed-in tariff

Abstract

Depleting gas and oil have encouraged scientist and governments to seek other alternatives. Renewable Energy (RE) resources have been the best option as a solution for the time being issue. In order to achieve rapid development of RE resources usage, Feed in-Tariff has been introduced and applied. FIT considers as an energy supply policy that offers a guarantee of payment to RE developers for the electricity the customers produce. It incentive to encourage uptake of RE technology including photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbines and other technologies. There are two different types of metering systems, Gross and Net metering. Gross metering policy is to pay customers for both RE installation and for the generated electricity weather it has been consumed or injected directly to the grid. However, Net metering policy only considers the difference of the injected and the consumed electricity. The customers are paid only if their electricity consumption is less than their generation. This project compares the results for Net and Gross metering system for various load cases. The works presented here include i) review different FIT scheme metering system for various countries, ii) to make different case studies for different loads scenarios for UTM load and a typical Malaysian house, in JB, comparing it to a European (Portugal) house and the analyses is performed by using Homer software. All cases will be considering grid connecting PV system. The effect of financial factor like payback period, NPC (Vet Present Cost) and COE (Cost of Electricity) are used in the comparison. Results showed that Gross metering was preferable for Malaysian domestic or commercial load because it has less COE, NPC and less payback period comparing to Net metering system.