Open Letter to the Borough Council

The Pemberton Borough Electric Code 90 paragraph 11 and 12 specifies that EXCESS Energy will be measured when connecting a solar generator, using a separate utility grade meter. It does not define the term EXCESS. It does not define how the separate utility meter will be installed.

The electrician who installed the meter, placed it in parallel with the original utility meter. This caused all the generated Solar energy to be siphoned off to the grid. Another Borough Electrician stated that the second meter is to be placed on the output of the Solar generator such that it measures ALL of the energy generated When power is run in the reverse direction through the original consumption utility meter, as it does in this case, the reading on the consumption meter is 1.5 to 1.7 times higher than it should be.

It is clear that the Utility does not understand how to meter in conformance with the requirements of the Borough Electric Code. The borough needs to identify the equipment and its configuration that will be used to measure the Energy flow so they determine the EXCESS energy produced. They also need to define EXCESS in their code so an Electrical Engineer can tell them how it must be metered

The standard for connecting a solar generating system to the grid is to use a net meter. This is a single device which measures the current flow in both directions and nets the difference. Since the Borough is attempting to sell the solar consumer all the energy it can, they want to measure the energy that is not used at the time it is produced and purchase it at a wholesale rate. This can be done but it involves the installation of consumption and generation sensors that they have access to as well as a processor to interpret the readings. None of the monitoring schemes they have used perform that function.

To protect myself from another excessive electric bill, the Solar Generator has been turned off. I am consuming the very expensive Borough electricity that is being generated using Carbon Based fuel and adding tons of CO2 to the Atmosphere. In the short operating life of this system, over 1.25 Megawatt hours of power has been produced without adding a single molecule of CO2 to the atmosphere. Every hour that it is not in use results in additional CO2 being generated.

Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years. We will be suffering from an increasing number of massive superstorms and worse in the near future. It behooves all of us to do anything we can to reduce or eliminate our carbon footprint on Planet Earth. The Borough of Pemberton is doing their best to inhibit this process.

The Pemberton Borough Electric department is not conforming to their own electrical code. EXCESS energy is not being monitored. They are measuring ALL the energy produced. The current meter configuration is reading 1.5-1.7 times more than I am consuming costing me far more in my monthly electric bill. I have been unable to consume any of the power generated in the past year. It is time for the Borough Council to step up to the plate.

Regards,

Bruce T Buzalski