[villagetinker]

I grew up in Pennsylvania, where all of the electric utilities are deregulated. Basically, when the customer gets there bill, there is a line charge for power (the customer was allowed to shop for their electric supplier), there was a line item for power delivery (for the distribution company infrastructure), a line item for taxes (you cannot forget the state), and a line item for basically electric system upgrades.

So, if FL was deregulated, I being a SECO customer, could go the Duke if their power was lower cost then SECO. I actually worked for an Electric Utility, and for many years bought my power from MetEd as they were lower cost, later, the utility I worked for became the lower cost supplier, and I changed to them.

In this scenario the local electric company become the delivery company for power (aka think of UPS or FEDEX). The generation facilities were spun off, and were separate from the distribution companies, and became the power suppliers. The very large bulk power lines (like the ones cutting through TV) were handled by a large independent transmission operator, in this case PJM.

When PA initiated REPS (renewal energy portfolio standards) the utilities were required to provide a specific amount of their power from RENEWABLE resources. They could do it themselves by building their own renewal generation facilities), they could purchase renewal energy from others (think large wind farms or large solar installations), or they could offer rebates to home owners.

I firmly believe that the PA residents got significant savings from this model. There are many states that have this type of system. Unfortunately, Florida is not setup this way, and any 'subsidy' to a homeowner, will probably be reflected in an increase in the others users rates. IMHO, until FL gets into the 21st century, and allows deregulation of the utility industry, you will probably not see a level playing field for solar.

This is the very short description of over 20 years of evolution of the utility system in PA and many others states.

Hope this helps in providing some background in this discussion.