Maybe. Try to make sense of the sentence: "Dominion plans to charge $4.19 per kilowatt for a solar customer's average peak usage of the company's electricity each month." What is 'average peak usage'? Is that only importing, or either peak export or peak import?
That would be the average peak power usage for the month. Basically like demand metering. $4.19 per kW isn't a bad price for power. I am not sure what their energy price is.
A power company either produces their own power or imports power from a generator somewhere. They have to pay for the power, much like a store has to buy a loaf of bread in order to sell it back to you. The avoided wholesale rate now is somewhere around 4.5 cents per kWh. Take that wholesale price and add in enough profit to pay for all the lines and poles, which are normally "financed" for 35 years, and the operating costs, plus stockholders dividends, the price will rise to somewhere in the 9-11 cent range. Much like the profit on the loaf of bread the store owner has to sell you in order to keep his shop open.
The basic facility charge I have seen mentioned in some posts, is generally only enough to pay an extremely small fraction of the actual cost. Power companies rely on their variable product sales to "keep the doors open". I have heard some figures as high as $65 per meter for a basic facility charge in order to not be so dependant on energy sales. Realistically, why would a power company want you to conserve energy since that is where their profit comes from? Only because of Govt. mandates do we encourage energy conservation.
When you Net Meter, If you produce enough power to make the meter spin backwards, then the power company is basically paying you the 9-11 cents per kWh it charges a customer. The owner of the store has to pay you to take the bread out of his store is what that amounts to.
A power company may charge you for the demand. They have to maintain a capacity whether it is used or not. You can't store power. A generator, whether coal fired, nuclear, or whatever, will have to produce what is being used at any given moment. You can't reasonably expect the power company to commit to a certain capacity for free. That is why there are base plants, excess plants and peaking plants, and when these peaking plants crank up during peak periods, the energy price can be as high as 11 cents per kWh and the power can cost upwards of $27 (DOLLARS PER kW!) wholesale price. That has to be added in and spread out among the total power and energy sold each month to arrive at the everyday power and energy price you have to pay to keep the company profitable.
So no, I don't feel sorry for someone that decides to interconnect to the utility to have to pay a "convenience fee" if you will. They do have an alternative, buy batteries and two way inverters and disconnect from the grid.
Wonder what will happen in 2016 when the subsidies for solar will expire?