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Summary of Residential Rate Plans for APS Customers with an On-Site Distributed Generation System

Summary of Residential Rate Plans for APS Customers with an On-Site Distributed Generation System

(Interconnect applications submitted after August 31, 2022)

This is not an official APS document, it is a summary of residential rate plans for APS customers with an on-site distributed generation system put together by the Arizona Solar Center from the rate schedules posted at https://www.aps.com/en/Residential/Service-Plans/Compare-Service-Plans. See the actual rates by following the links at the above APS web page link. These are the charges for energy purchased from APS, see below for backfeed credits (exports of power to the grid, "APS purchase rates" also known as RCP).

Rate Periods for the above:

The On-Peak time period for residential rate schedules is 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through

Friday year round. Off-Peak time period is the rest of the day and holidays.

The Super Off-Peak period is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and applies to those plans with a rate shown above.

Holidays for Off-Peak:

• New Year’s Day - January 1*
• Martin Luther King Day - Third Monday in January
• Presidents Day - Third Monday in February
• Cesar Chavez Day - March 31*
• Memorial Day - Last Monday in May
• Independence Day - July 4*
• Labor Day - First Monday in September
• Veterans Day - November 11*
• Thanksgiving - Fourth Thursday in November
• Christmas Day - December 25*

*If these holidays fall on a Saturday, the preceding Friday will be Off-peak. If they fall on a

Sunday, the following Monday will be Off-Peak.

APS Residential bills will include the following adjustments:

1. The Renewable Energy Adjustment Charge, Adjustment Schedule REAC-1. (
2. The Power Supply Adjustment charge, Adjustment Schedule PSA-1.
3. The Transmission Cost Adjustment charge, Adjustment Schedule TCA-1.
4. The Environmental Improvement Surcharge, Adjustment Schedule EIS.
5. The Demand Side Management Adjustment charge, Adjustment Schedule DSMAC-1.
6. The Lost Fixed Cost Recovery Adjustment charge, Adjustment Schedule LFCR.
7. The Tax Expense Adjustor Mechanism charge, Adjustment Schedule TEAM.
8. Direct Access customers returning to Standard Offer service may be subject to a Returning Customer Direct Access Charge, Adjustment Schedule RCDAC-1.
9. Any applicable taxes and governmental fees that are assessed on APS’s revenues, prices, sales volume, or generation volume.

And these Rate riders:

• CPP -(RES) Critical Peak Pricing (Residential)
• EPR-2 - Partial Requirements
• EPR-6 - Partial Requirements – Net Metering (Residential Non-Solar)
• RCP - Resource Comparison Proxy (This is for solar generation exports of power to the grid)
• E-3 - Limited income discount
• E-4 - Limited income medical discount
• GPS-1, GPS-2, GPS-3 Â Green Power

Notes:

1. The kW used to determine the demand charge above will be the Customer's highest amount of demand (kW) averaged in a one-hour On-Peak period for the billing month.
2. The SAVER CHOICE TECH rate schedule is available to residential Customers with the following:
   1. 1. Two or more qualifying primary on-site technologies purchased within 90 days of the customer enrolling in the rate; or
   2. 2. One qualifying primary on-site technology purchased within 90 days of the customer enrolling in the rate and two or more qualifying secondary on-site technologies.

Eclipse Effect on Mesa PV System

This is a plot of PV system output on August 21, 2017 in Mesa, Arizona.  Note the morning dip caused by the partial eclipse. The red line is the calculated average for the date, based on historical data.

Sonnen Signs a Deal to Put Storage in New Arizona Housing Developments

There is a point at which it will make economic sense to defect from the electrical grid

More than 1 million US homes have solar systems installed on their rooftops. Batteries are set to join many of them, giving homeowners the ability to not only generate but also store their electricity on-site. And once that happens, customers can drastically reduce their reliance on the grid.

It's great news for those receiving utility bills. It's possible armageddon for utilities.

A new study by the consulting firm McKinsey modeled two scenarios: one in which homeowners leave the electrical grid entirely, and one in which they obtain most of their power through solar and battery storage but keep a backup connection to the grid.

Given the current costs of generating and storing power at home, even residents of sunny Arizona would not have much economic incentive to leave the electric-power system completely - full grid-defection, as McKinsey refers to it -until around 2028. But partial defection, where some homeowners generate and store 80% to 90% of their electricity on site and use the grid only as a backup, makes economic sense as early as 2020.

This scenario is already playing out in Australia and Hawaii, and has begun spreading to solar-friendly markets such as Arizona, California, Nevada, and New York. As batteries get cheaper and better, utilities are rattled at the prospect of losing a massive share of their revenue.

A self-reinforcing cycle is at work. As consumers make their own energy, rates must increase on those left to cover the system's fixed costs. This raises rates still further, making it even more advantageous for customers to leave the grid.

Instead of adapting to this dynamic, utilities have generally sought to stifle solar with time-of-use pricing, demand charges, or cutting compensation for electricity exported back to the grid.

But as daily needs for many are supplied instead by solar and batteries, McKinsey predicts the electrical grid will be repurposed as an enormous, sophisticated backup. Utilities would step up and supply power during the few days or weeks per year when distributed systems run out of juice. Our analysis helps show the grid is very valuable as a backup investment, says Amy Wagner, a co-author of the McKinsey report.

Only, the business models of utilities are not designed for this. Their revenue typically depends on selling kilowatt hours: more electricity equals more money for utilities. Power users don't respond quickly to daily price spikes in their power bill, so ratepayers absorb electricity costs. That goes away in a world where software managing a grid connection can automatically switch to batteries to avoid high charges. A new business model is needed.

The only way to pay for the grid is as a network, said McKinsey's David Frankel, a co-author of the report. "It's very counter to what the industry has seen." Instead of paying per kilowatt, he suggests, grid users could pay for access and reliability, with one fee covering the vast majority of usage. The model might resemble the fixed, monthly charges we're used to paying for cell phone data and calls.

At the moment, only a tiny fraction of utility customers have left the grid or installed batteries. But it's happening faster than was expected several years ago. Solar panels and battery prices are dropping fast - lithium-ion batteries have fallen from $1,000 to $230 per kilowatt-hour since 2010 - as massive new solar and battery factories come online in China and the US. By 2020, Greentech Media projects, homes and businesses will have more battery storage for energy (841 megawatts of capacity) than utilities themselves.

Utilities may find they need to retool their business models sooner than they think.

From

https://qz.com/1017457/there-is-a-point-at-which-it-will-make-economic-sense-to-defect-from-the-electrical-grid/