Sitting on a rooftop, soaking up sun, the humble solar panel may not look like a threat to a multibillion-dollar industry.
But some electric utility executives say it is. They even have a name for the nightmare scenario solar could create – the "death spiral."
They fear solar's rapid spread across homes and businesses, combined with the increasing efficiency of modern buildings and appliances, could slowly erode the utilities' ability to grow. California utilities get paid based on the value of the assets they own – the transmission lines, substations and wires. As more businesses and homeowners generate their own electricity, the utilities won't need to add as many of those assets as before.
At the same time, the costs of maintaining the electricity grid might fall on fewer and fewer nonsolar utility customers. The companies could compensate by tacking on fixed monthly charges for all customers, solar and nonsolar alike. But those new charges would jack up bills, and that could prompt more people to slap panels on their roofs.
The problem will only get worse if advanced battery packs become cheap enough for home use, parked in the basement by the water heater.
Read on at: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Solar-switch-forces-utilities-to-shift-priorities-4929363.php
