THE VALUE OF PHOTOVOLTAIC ELECTRICITY FOR UTILITIES

This paper addresses the benefits of PV electricity from a utilities point-of-view. For a utility it is important to meet on-peak demand. Therefore, it has to be contested to what extent and in what season PV can contribute to on-peak supply. Moreover, time-of-use tariffs for PV-electricity fed into the grid may even increase the amount of electricity saved on the one hand and the contribution to peak load power supply on the other. One important aspect is to go beyond static appraisals. More precisely, we have to take into account conceivable interactions between consumers owning a PV system and utilities. That is to say, if consumers become involved in their own electricity supply, they will also contribute to energy conservation and load management.