Project Details:Top

Utility Name:	Salt River Project
Utility Type:	Muni
Funding Source(s):	Voluntary Customer Premium Payments
State:	Arizona | AZ
Region:	West
Utility Program(s):	Centralized Solar System: Photovoltaic,Distributed Solar Systems,Net Metering,Residential System Incentives ($/kW),Commercial System Incentives (¢/kW),Green Pricing Program
Technology:	PV

Project Description:Top

EarthWise Energy is a Green Pricing program provided by Salt River Project (SRP) to help meet the state RPS requirement. Customer contributions purchase renewable energy from renewable energy installations in the area, including wind turbines, geothermal, land-fill biogas, hydro power, and PV systems.
EarthWise Energy is available in $3 blocks per 100 kWh, which is added to a customer's regular monthly electricity bill. Over 4,500 SRP residential customers and 35 businesses are currently participating. A distinctive feature of this green pricing program is that a portion of the funds are allocated to install public PV systems. Three PV systems of approximately 400 kW have been installed to date.
The EarthWise program also includes a solar energy component that provides homes and businesses with an incentive of $3/watt-dc for PV systems sized 10 kW and less. Business customers can receive a $2.50/watt-dc incentive for PV systems over 10 kW with a cap of $500,000 per system.

SRP's net metering standards require customers to sell 100% of the PV generation to SRP and buy 100% of their electricity needs from SRP, i.e. systems are interconnected on the utility side of the meter . For small PV systems SRP's billing system will subtract the PV generation amount from the customer's electricity purchase, similar to traditional net metering. Credit for excess energy (above consumption) will be paid out monthly at SRP's "average market price" and cannot be carried forward. For PV systems over 10 kW, SRP calculates actual hourly credit values for surplus electricity provided by the PV system, a design that is more similar to a feed-in tariff than to net metering since it has no impact on the customer's bill.

SRP has an internal annual spending cap for their EarthWise Solar Energy incentives. Once the cap is reached, additional customers will be placed on a waiting list for the next year to manage the annual budget impacts.

Project Links:Top

General Project Description: http://www.srpnet.com/environment/earthwise/home.aspx

Solar Cost Calculator: https://www.srpnet.com/environment/solar/home/calculator/cost.aspx

Customer checklist tool: https://www.srpnet.com/environment/earthwise/pdfx/checklist.pdf

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