Info about Dominion power grid tie annual review and meter reference point

A little info for those of you in Dominion power areas regarding grid tie accounting and meter reference points.

Fairfax County, VA minimum grid tie cost is $7. $6.50 distribution charge and $0.50 County tax. Small price to pay to use the grid as my storage battery for 10 months of the year.

The annual review of total purchased/pulled versus sold/pushed power happens about the same time as your system received the permission to operate. This is when they readjust your meter reading on your bill. Ours happened mid-billing cycle. So if you sold more power than used at that date, the meter reading becomes the new reference point for that billing cycle. It's also when they will pay you for any negative amount on your meter. It's a single point in time once a year where they will give you a check for net power sold to them.

Now if you don't have a repurchase agreement, you get no check. (That would be our case) it's optional to have a repurchase agreement. You don't need one if your review date is when you are positive on your meter. Ours is in April when the meter is negative so we need to get an agreement. It won't be much, maybe $40 or so in our case. 

We have considerable shading with our 9000W system. Instead of an annual electric bill of $2200, it's now about $200. We generate more power than we use from mid-February to September. October and November use up the negative on our meter so in December we have billable usage of about $40.

Hope this info gives people an idea of how net metering works in Virginia with Dominion power.