A comparative techno-economic study of the Net-Metering and Net-Billing self-consumption schemes for industrial and residential consumers in Greece

This paper presents a comparative techno-economic study of the net-metering and net-billing self-consumption schemes when applied to industrial and residential consumers that are equipped with a PV system in their premises. Fixed-tilt and single-axis tracking PV mounting systems have been considered, whereas the multiple cost components of the supply and regulated charges have been explicitly modeled and analyzed. Real-life electricity consumption and PV generation data have been used along with detailed wholesale electricity market data derived by an analytical long-term chronological simulation of the Greek wholesale electricity market under hourly time granularity for a 20-year study period (2026–2045) using a specialized integrated market simulation software. Simulation results show that the installation of an on-site PV system can lead to notable annual electricity cost savings for both consumer types and self-consumption schemes. The co-evaluation of the annual cost savings with the project investment and operational costs in the long-term provides further insights into the impact that the adopted self-consumption scheme along with the selected PV mounting system and the capital expenditure may have on standard project valuation indicators for each consumer type.