Investigating net-metering variant policies: The case of Greece

Net-Metering is an alternative mechanism to Feed-in-Tariffs (FiT) for the promotion of small scale Photovoltaics (PV) generation, especially in the residential sector. Regarding the EU countries net-metering applications are relatively limited, but due to the interest of many parties, net-metering is expected to hold an active role in the coming years. This work focuses on the economic evaluation of a series of Net-Metering policies from a prosumer bill saving perspective in Greece. In addition to using the four-months billing period approach already existing in Greece, this study also considers scenarios referring to hourly-based netting. The hourly excess electricity is compensated with the system marginal price. This approach aids on the detailed assessment of the PV generation capacity on an hourly basis. Also, it allows the prosumer to form a specific load management strategy. The results show that even an hourly netting policy can be attractive to investors under certain conditions, thus creating a win-win situation for both DSO's and investors.