Small-scale solar is changing hourly utility electricity demand in New England

An increase in electricity generation from small-scale, customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) solar in New England is changing the hourly pattern of metered electricity demand during the spring (March–May), which you can see in our Hourly Electric Grid Monitor. Small-scale solar PV are systems with less than 1 megawatt (MW) of generating capacity and are typically not metered by a utility (referred to as behind the meter). As a result of the increase in this type of solar generating capacity in New England, electricity demand on utilities was rapidly decreasing during the morning and rapidly increasing during the evening through the spring.