Editing Backfeeding (section)

== Grid design considerations ==
For manufacturing cost and operational simplicity reasons, most circuit (overcurrent) protection and power quality control (voltage regulation) devices used by electric utility companies are designed with the assumption that power always flows in one direction. An interconnection agreement can be arranged for equipment designed to backfeed from the consumer's equipment to the electrical utility provider's distribution system. This type of interconnection can involve nontrivial engineering and usage of costly specialized equipment designed to keep distribution circuits and equipment properly protected. Such costs may be minimized by limiting distributed generation capacity to less than that which is consumed locally, and guaranteeing this condition by installing a reverse-power cutoff relay that opens if backfeeding occurs.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ram |first1=Badri |last2=Vishwakarma |first2=D.N. |title=Power system protection and switchgear |date=April 2001 |publisher=Tata McGraw-Hill |isbn=0074623508 |pages=456}}</ref>