Because we are talking about offsetting credits here. In most schemes the power company won&#x27;t cut you a check, they just run your bill down to zero (assuming you overproduce for the entire year).<p>By paying wholesale when you have excess yet charging retail when you don&#x27;t they are effectively charging you _their_ profit margin on _your_ own electricity.<p>Solar customers already pay the grid maintenance charges. Even if we assumed the utilities were entitled to some compensation for providing this service to solar customers it certainly wouldn&#x27;t be the spread between wholesale and retail rates.