The Economics and the Queue
Behind-the-meter power competes on two axes at once: cost per megawatt-hour and speed to the first megawatt. Grid power usually wins on raw energy cost, because a shared network spreads its fixed costs across everyone. Behind-the-meter increasingly wins on speed, because it skips the interconnection queue that now stretches past the patience of any capital plan. The market has started paying more for speed than for the last few dollars of energy cost. Whenever the value of being powered now exceeds the premium of making your own power, the meter boundary moves in your favor. Time-to-power is the new price signal.
Knowledge check
Why can behind-the-meter generation win even when its cost per megawatt-hour is higher than grid power?
Show the answer
Because it competes on speed as well as cost. A non-exporting on-site plant can be energized in months while a grid connection waits years in the interconnection queue. When the value of being powered now, and earning, exceeds the energy-cost premium of self-generation, the faster option wins even at a higher price per megawatt-hour.