01-17-2009, 05:06 PM
I am a licensed electrical contractor (there is no such thing as a separate licensed solar contractor) with limited solar experience. I have put a 13 panel net metering system on my house. Without going into details, the installation was easy, dealing with the County and Helco was not. Unlike other electrical permits, a solar permit requires a set of plans stamped by an electrical engineer and technical spec sheets on all the equipment that is to be installed.
A future complications, from the Helco website:
"Under the law, the cap on the total power producing capacity of generators signed up to take advantage of net energy metering is set at one percent of each electric utility’s system peak demand. The PUC, by rule or order, can increase this percentage. The actual number of customers who can sign up before this cap is reached depends on the combined size of the individual renewable energy systems. On Oahu, 40 percent of the cap is reserved for systems of 10 kW or smaller; on Maui and Hawaii Island, 50 percent of the cap is reserved for smaller systems".
Among my other problems, when I turned in the net metering forms I was admonished that I should have done this before beginning--supposedly they are getting close to the number "allowed" and you are supposed to get prior approval.
Jerry
A future complications, from the Helco website:
"Under the law, the cap on the total power producing capacity of generators signed up to take advantage of net energy metering is set at one percent of each electric utility’s system peak demand. The PUC, by rule or order, can increase this percentage. The actual number of customers who can sign up before this cap is reached depends on the combined size of the individual renewable energy systems. On Oahu, 40 percent of the cap is reserved for systems of 10 kW or smaller; on Maui and Hawaii Island, 50 percent of the cap is reserved for smaller systems".
Among my other problems, when I turned in the net metering forms I was admonished that I should have done this before beginning--supposedly they are getting close to the number "allowed" and you are supposed to get prior approval.
Jerry