Uneven distribution costs !

Take a drive around any suburb and you will notice the increasing number of solar panels on roof tops.   The cost of a solar array is constantly dropping and the ever rising cost of electricity is a big incentive to take the plunge an " go solar ".

Alarm bells are ringing as the people who juggle the electricity cost framework do their sums and point out how solar is leading to a grossly uneven blip in distribution costs.   It seems that the lowly paid are once again at  a cost imbalance that is growing bigger between the people who installed solar and those who find such an acquisition out of their reach.

Part of each power bill is a component to cover the poles and wires, load reduction transformers and all the repair people and equipment needed to ensure an uninterrupted power supply.    This is loaded into the metered cost as part of the price per unit that we pay for the power we use.   The more electricity we consume - the higher our power bill.

That's where solar causes this imbalance.  Because the people with solar panels generate a percentage of their electricity usage, they draw much less from the meter - and this results in a lower power bill.   As a consequence, the distribution cost component is spread more thinly and falls more heavily on those who lack the input delivered by solar roof arrays.

This distribution cost component will continue to shift alarmingly as the solar panel industry attracts more customers and it seems inevitable that by the end of this century a home without solar panels on it's roof will be an oddity.  We seem destined to deliver an unsustainable cost burden on those without solar panels unless we can find a new way to distribute the electricity cost structure.

That delivers a king size headache to the cost boffins who have to solve this problem.   If they load more of the distribution costs onto solar panel owners, they reduce the incentive to invest in solar power - and cripple the fast expanding solar installation industry.    If they leave the situation unchanged, the steady increase in solar will keep inflating the power bills on non solar customers - to breaking point !

The logical - but unpopular - solution would be to separate the distribution segment into a charge per connected household.   In that way,  every household would have an equal distribution cost and the amount of power used would be billed separately.   It could be argued that distribution costs are a fixed amount not directly related to power usage - and as such apply equally to every home connected to the grid.

Pity the people tasked with solving this problem.   Valid arguments exist on both sides of the equation - and the ferocity with which it will be debated is sure to tempt some to consign it to " the too hard basket " !