In theory, if you were dealing with one entity, it could be pretty easy.
But you are actually dealing with multiple entities:
- your utility’s transmission subsidiary
- your utility’s generation subsidiary
- your applicable regulatory entities
- your regional grid operator/planning organization
> Well, this is not in the interest of the utility at all (they lose money), but they still by policy get to ‘approve it’. This required a many-month (and many phone call) process of reviews, approvals, etc. which concluded in the utility activating (installing a meter for) the installation.
Your utility would much rather just say no and be done with it.
They similarly have no financial interests in operating a Kafka-esque bureaucracy that requires them to staff entire departments that are a net drain on their revenue.
But they are obligated by the state regulator to have a uniform framework and process for electricity generators (which you are now) to interconnect with their transmission network (you to their lines).
This pulls you into the category of safety, reliability, and financial requirements which are typically only applied to commercial generators.
The primary things the utility (both transmission and generation) wants to avoid is backfeeding and islanding — the former is dangerous to linemen, the latter is dangerous to your neighbors’ equipment.
> However, the payout is hilariously low (like $0.01/kWh) so of course everyone chooses the bank.
The payout for generation is negotiated by three entities: the regional grid operator which is committing to purchasing capacity, the utility’s transmission operator which charges to interconnect and deliver your power, and the state regulator who has the FINAL say on rates.
Additionally, your utility along with every other utility in America is engaged in demand management programs.
The TL;DR version is utilities pay tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to vendors over the span of a multi-year contract to REDUCE electric demand.
This typically manifests itself to retail customers the form of free Nest thermostats, time of use programs, and subsidized appliance efficiency upgrades (or rebates).
If they could redirect this money to small generators like yourself and have the same impact, they would drop their demand management programs in a heartbeat (and the regulatory obligations that come with it).
I wrote this on my phone, so I can’t easily list references, but I did use a number of searchable terms that will lead you in the right direction.