Tucson Electric Power (TEP) owned solar questions

[MikeBur]

Hi all,

Considering a property in Tucson, AZ as rooftop, owned, solar panels; unfamiliar with TEP and their attitude toward residential solar though their website makes me feel it’s not positive

Can anyone with local experience answer few questions please?

Considering there’s 20 panels on roof (so hoping at least 5kW), no battery, and will have EV there:
What useful tariffs to consider are there?
How’s this change with Powerwall storage?

thanks, Mike

 

[MyJoule]

We did a self install with TEP last year It took a little effort on our part but they were pretty easy to work with. You can find out more at tep.com/renewables ( I think I got that link correct. ). There are some specific rules about their rates for solar these are controlled by the corporation commission. I think we get around 0.08/KWH for our excess production but it has to be incidental ie you need to size the system appropriately for your usage. So we sized our system to max out near our usage. There are or were a few areas around town that are solar saturated and currently unavailable for more solar. Until they can balance the feeds. As far as energy storage. We elected to not do that as the cost of storage is high and our power has been very reliable for the 40 years we’ve lived there.

 

[MikeBur]

We did a self install with TEP last year It took a little effort on our part but they were pretty easy to work with. You can find out more at tep.com/renewables ( I think I got that link correct. ). There are some specific rules about their rates for solar these are controlled by the corporation commission. I think we get around 0.08/KWH for our excess production but it has to be incidental ie you need to size the system appropriately for your usage. So we sized our system to max out near our usage. There are or were a few areas around town that are solar saturated and currently unavailable for more solar. Until they can balance the feeds. As far as energy storage. We elected to not do that as the cost of storage is high and our power has been very reliable for the 40 years we’ve lived there.

Thanks. there are numerous rate tariffs from TEP, incl ev off peak. Could see solar coping for day use, Powerwall for evening peak shoulder offset and low rate for ev charging post midnight. Need to do math to figure out offset.

 

[MyJoule]

Thanks. there are numerous rate tariffs from TEP, incl ev off peak. Could see solar coping for day use, Powerwall for evening peak shoulder offset and low rate for ev charging post midnight. Need to do math to figure out offset.

I think there is a requirement to be on one specific rate plan with distributed generation. The one we are on is basically time of use. Which has a winter peak rate time and a summer peak rate time.

I can’t recall the times for winter but summer is peak 3-7 pm or something Like that.

Overall our power is pretty inexpensive in southern Arizona. We average around 12.5/ KWH if I recall correctly