Proposed Grid Tie System

I have a one acre parcel in zone 6b in Ohio, USA.  I plan to put up a pole barn with the southern roof exposure pitched to maximize my solar gain.  

My home is presently fed by a utility pole transformer that runs it's power across my driveway.

I'd like to eliminate that eyesore.  What I'd like to do is have the power run underground to the pole barn first, where it would be grid tied to the solar array on the roof of the pole barn, then the power run underground to the house, so everything is neat and tidy.

I had an opportunity to talk about this to a power company engineer and he told me it could be done, but that it would mean I would no longer have a "Residential" account.

Is anyone familiar with what he's talking about, because even he didn't have anything to add that would help me understand what that would mean going forward.

I really like the idea of using the large roof area of the pole barn to maximize my solar energy harvest, use what I need for my home and workshop, and bank the rest for Summer when we need the air conditioning more.  

Anyone care to comment on the pros and cons of such a setup?

Thomas said, "I had an opportunity to talk about this to a power company engineer and he told me it could be done, but that it would mean I would no longer have a "Residential" account.

I assume he is talking about what you would be charged by the electric company aka rate.

I would suggest that you ask the person who told you that or someone else at the electric company as they would be the best to advice what having a business account means. Or if they are even talking about a business account.

Great advice above. You could also call an electrical contractor for clarification and costs. Net metering has a lot of different rules depending on locations and utility companies.

All the different power companies have different rules from my experience.  I am hooked to a municipality.  They, by law don't have to hook to me if they don't want to.  They have started to work with the community to try to figure out how to integrate these tie systems.  They only credit you for the next month.  I talked to their engineering department about some issues they are having.  First they have no way of storing the power.  Sometimes they get too power much and the power plant has to maintain a certain percentage to remain running and reactive.  Second, is where you are at on the grid.  Power lines can only take so much before they need to be sized up.  Running bigger lines right now is extremely costly for them.  Adding new lines with no way of revenue is not a solution they can afford.  I have talked to other companies that have a credit that ends at the end of the year and you start over from there.  I have been working with some future storing units, but they are years out and still too costly.  

In my situation the Electric company applies any overage to the next months usage charges.  Pretty sure I still have to pay for the service side of the bill.  At the end of the year any overage is paid out in the form of a credit that can be sold to other energy suppliers on a market.   Our electric lines also terminate at ours and our neighbors house.  I'd actually be moving my power tap to the next transformer back on the system so it shouldn't incur much of a change.  Getting any information from First Energy of Ohio is like pulling teeth, so I'll have to keep at them.  Go a ways to go before the barn is up so there's time to get this sorted.