Distributed Generation:
What members need to know

1). What is distributed generation (DG)?

Generating technologies located close to where the electricity is being used that are connected to the electric power grid and serve as supplement to or an enhancement of the traditional electric power system. The technologies of interest today for member-owners primarily include solar and wind generation and energy storage solutions. Distributed generation allows member-owners to produce some or all of the electricity they need. Renewable energy distributed generation systems only produce power when their energy source, such as wind or sunlight, is available; this is called intermittent power. Due to this intermittency of the power supply from distributed generation, there often are times when the member-owner still needs to receive electricity from the cooperative’s grid. When the distributed generation system produces more power than the member-owner can consume at that time, the excess power is sent onto the cooperative’s grid. This reduces the overall amount of electricity that the cooperative needs to supply at the time the distributed generation system is producing power. Iowa’s electric cooperatives also define distributed generation as member-owned generation that meets the definition of a Qualifying Facility under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) or an Alternate Energy Production (AEP) Facility as defined in Iowa Code §476.42.