REC Silicon to suspend production at Moses Lake, Washington poly factory

February 12, 2019

Tariffs on  Chinese polysilicon imports as part of the 2014 trade dispute over Chinese solar panels and American polysilicon have caused REC Silicon to suspend operations at its Moses Lake, Washington polysilicon production facility in the USA from March 1. China imposed tariffs on polysilicon imports from the U.S. in 2014 in response to the U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar panels, effectively cutting off REC Silicon and other producers in the USA from the world’s largest market.

More information at: pv magazine

Update on pv magazine 8-4-2020:

Norwegian polysilicon and silane gas company REC Silicon ASA is fast approaching its effective exit from the solar market after revealing in its second-quarter update it had sold off the last 62 MT of PV-grade poly produced at its plant in Moses Lake, Washington, which has been shuttered for over a year.

The import duties applied on U.S.-made polysilicon by the Chinese authorities which have effectively shut REC out of the world’s biggest market prompted the company to close its Moses Lake fluidized bed reactor facility in the second quarter of last year. As a result, the company’s solar materials division generated revenue of only $300,000 in the April-to-June window as it contributed a $2.3 million hit to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, following a $2.8 million deficit to the bottom line in the first three months of the year.

Arizona Electric Utility Information

The policies of the various Arizona electric utilities are very important to the implementation of Distributed Generation (solar electric, etc.) in Arizona.

The Solar Center will use this web space to describe the various utility policies.

APS

Effective September 1st 2017 APS implemented a new schedule of solar rates:

APS Solar rate changes- 2017

The days of residential net metering are now long gone, APS now uses meters that measure the instantaneous export power and APS credits this monthly at $0.1161 per kWh (for new PV systems with applications completed before August 31, 2019).  APS On-Peak Energy Charges in the Summer range from $0.24314 down to $0.05750, depending on rate schedule and the corresponding demand charge.  A simple summary is available at https://azsolarcenter.org/summary-of-residential-rate-plans-for-aps-customers-with-an-on-site-distributed-generation-system.  It is difficult to determine an optimum rate selection. One factor to consider is that APS charges a monthly Grid Access fee of $0.93 per kWdc of the PV array rating.  This adds up over the years and needs to be considered when deciding on an array rating.

There are residential PV system size limits: The PV array nameplate capacity cannot be larger than the following electrical service limits:

a) For 200 Amp service, a maximum of 15 kW-dc.

b) For 400 Amp service, a maximum of 30 kW-dc.

c) For 600 Amp service, a maximum of 45 kW-dc.

d) For 800 Amp service and above, a maximum of 60 kW-dc

For commercial systems APS offers net metering (Rate Rider EPR-6) and has a size limit that the facility’s nameplate capacity cannot be larger than 150% of the customer’s maximum one-hour peak demand measured in AC over the prior twelve (12) months.

Other APS specific information:

• Summary of APS Solar Rate Plans- 2019
• New: Understanding your APS Connected Photovoltaic System

SRP

Residential solar customers are required to the use the E-27 rate schedule with its high demand rates, but low energy rates.  Any monthly excess is credited at $0.037 to $0.0633 per kWh, much lower than APS.  SRP does not have a monthly fee based on PV array or inverter size. If the PV system is over-sized, the excess energy is only worth $0.037 to $0.0633 per kWh.

For commercial PV systems SRP uses an hourly net metering procedure (BUYBACK SERVICE RIDER) in which any excess balance each hour is purchased by SRP at the Hourly Indexed Energy Price - $0.00017/kWh, basically the wholesale energy price at Palo Verde less a small handling charge.  This averages $0.020 to $0.030 per kWh.  This procedure makes it difficult to accurately forecast value of any excess credits.

Other SRP specific information:

• SRP is proposing three new Price Plans for Rooftop Solar
• SRP approves rate decrease as directors argue about solar power and batteries

TEP 

TEP will pay new solar customers 8.68 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for their systems' excess power (note: this is not net metering), a price that reflects average market costs over a recent five-year period (TEP Statement of Charges as of October 1, 2019). Customers who file applications after Sept. 30, 2019 to install private rooftop solar systems will keep their initial export rate for up to 10 years. The export rate will be updated annually to reflect market prices for solar power, but will not be allowed to fall more than 10 percent. New solar customers also can choose from two existing Time-of-Use pricing plans, which offer lower rates during most of the day, on weekends and holidays. TEP offers Fast Track™ easy approval for simple PV systems of 10 kWac or less. See the current TEP rate schedule.

See also the TEP announcement Tucson Electric Power (TEP) to provide 70% of its energy from solar and wind by 2035

Navopache Electric Cooperative

Navopache Electric Cooperative is non-profit member-owned distribution cooperative, serving over 33,000 members across the White Mountains of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Navopache still (Feb 2019) offers Net Metering.  Their basic policy is spelled out in their Net Metering Rate Schedule (link).

All their rate schedules are available (link).

SULPHUR SPRINGS VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC.

All kWh delivered by SSVEC to the Customer will be billed on the rate charged to the Customer under the applicable Standard Rate Schedule.
All kWh received from Customer (Customer produced excess energy) will be credited on a monthly basis by SSVEC to the Customer at the Distributed Generation Energy Export
(“DGEE”) Rate as defined below. Customer excess energy cannot be “banked,” “saved,” or “rolled forward” for use in a future month.There is no Annual True-Up month under this Schedule DG as the accounts are truedup monthly.

Distributed Generation Energy Export (DGEE) Rate shall be defined as follows:
Year 1 (2018) DGEE Rate $0.071165 per kWh
Year 2 (2019) DGEE Rate $0.064049 per kWh
Year 3 (2020) DGEE Rate $0.057644 per kWh
Year 4 (2021) DGEE Rate $0.051879 per kWh
Year 5 (2022) DGEE Rate $0.046691 per kWh
Year 6 (2023) DGEE Rate $0.041310 per kWh
Year 7 (2024 and beyond) DGEE Rate RCP Rate as updated annually.

Further info:

Intro to arizonagoessolar.org website

APS Rate Case - Higher rates, solar changes now effective as of September 1st

APS customers had until August 31, 2017 to submit complete interconnection applications to APS in order to be grandfathered under earlier solar policy.  Basic rates have increased and net metering was eliminated, replaced by a fixed purchase rate that starts at $0.129 per kwhr and will decrease in the future.  Further details are posted in a link below.

Quick APS Links:

News Release (Aug. 15, 2017)
Summary for Residential Customers
Summary for Business Customers
Solar Grandfathering Fact Sheet (also see the note below for additional information)

The Arizona Solar Center has put together an unofficial summary of the new APS rate schedules for new solar customers, click here.

On August 21, 2017 APS emailed the following information to Stakeholders (but it does not seem to be on the APS website):

Stakeholders,

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has approved a decision in our rate review, and we are happy to share some details with you affecting our solar customers. We appreciate your support in delivering this message to customers and will be glad to help you with any questions you may have. For your reference, attached are letters that were sent to customers regarding grandfathering. Other resources are available at aps.com/gosolar.

Grandfathering

• Current solar customers that are interconnected to the APS grid will remain grandfathered for 20 years from the date of interconnection.
  • The grandfathering stays with the premise. Systems transferred to a new premise will require a new application, and the customer would no longer be eligible for EPR-6.
  • Over the terms of the grandfathering period, a customer may not increase the capacity of their grandfathered solar system by more than a total of 10% or 1 kW, whichever is greater.
• Customers who submit a complete application by 11:59 p.m. August 31, 2017 will be eligible for grandfathering. The system would need to be installed and have AHJ approval by February 28, 2018 in order to qualify. A complete application includes all of the following:
  • Customer Application
  • Executed Contract
  • Disclaimer
  • Consumer Acknowledgement
  • Installer Application
  • Three Line Diagram
  • Site Plan

On January 18th APS emailed the following information to Stakeholders (but it does not seem to be on the APS website):

Stakeholder Communication January 18, 2018

Stakeholders,

We hope you all had a great holiday, and Happy New Year!

The February 28, 2018 installation deadline for grandfathering is quickly approaching, and we want to remind you of the following:

• Upgrading a Service Entrance Section (SES) can take up to 4-6 weeks.
  • When submitting your service request, best practice is to include a copy of the permit and site photos
• Derates are currently taking 2-3 weeks to schedule depending on volume.
• An installed system means that APS has received the approval (green tag) from the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) by February 28.
  • If there is a delay by the AHJ, APS would require proof that the request for inspection was made with reasonable time for the AHJ to process prior to the deadline. i.e. copy of the request sent to the AHJ. 
    • If you know that a municipality takes two weeks to inspect, your request should be in by February 14.
    • If your inspection is not completed by the deadline, be sure to keep the proof of your inspection request to provide to APS.
  • As a reminder, the high volume of applications and grandfathering deadline will increase inspection requests to the AHJs. Please plan accordingly.

All applications that do not meet the firm February 28 installation deadline will be eligible for Rate Rider RCP (Resource Comparison Proxy). If the system is over 10 kW, we will review the application again for RCP qualification. If the system does not meet the qualifications, we will notify all parties on the application.

Rate Changes – The deadline for grandfathered solar customers to change rates was August 31, 2017. Requests after that date to change from one grandfathered rate to a different grandfathered rate will not be accepted. Please be sure to advise customers that if they are grandfathered, they can either:

• Keep their current rate plan, or,
• Choose a new rate plan, which would effectively forfeit their grandfathering.

A letter will be sent to customers to remind them of the deadlines mentioned above.

Sincerely,

APS Renewable Energy Team