Consumer confidence in renewable energy growing, Florida PSC reports
Electric utility reports filed by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) this year show that consumer use of renewable energy continues to grow, with customer-owned installations and overall generation capacity from renewables up since 2018.
Led by solar photovoltaic panels, customer-owned installations of renewable generation have increased by approximately 57 percent over the last year, reaching 59,508 in 2019. That’s up from 37,862 interconnections in 2018. Statewide electric generation capacity from such systems reached 514,503 kW, also an increase over the previous year.
All of this has been building since 2008 when the FPSC amended its rules and made it easier for customers to interconnect their systems with the utility’s grid and allowed net metering. Since the adoption of that rule, the number of renewable systems in Florida has increased from 577 to more than 59,500 interconnections.
Why the interest? That allowance provided a billing mechanism that gave customers the ability to offset usage by self-generating energy. Any excess is given to the grid, which provides those customers with a kilowatt-hour credit to their monthly energy usage.
Aiding the whole offer is the fact that investor-owned utilities are also required to offer expedited interconnection agreement processes that allow homeowners and businesses interested in the option to dive into self-generation quickly and efficiently. Municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives that sell electricity at retail also have obligations under the law. They must provide standardized interconnection agreements and net metering programs for any customer-owned renewable generation systems.
