Arizona solar export compensation
What Arizona pays for exported rooftop solar power, with the source and the date each figure was checked.
Record verified 2026-09-16 · 17 of 17 fields sourced
Arizona closed retail-rate net metering to new rooftop solar customers in 2018. The Arizona Corporation Commission replaced it with the Resource Comparison Proxy (RCP), a purchase rate derived from a rolling five-year weighted average of what the utility pays for grid-scale solar. The RCP is reset annually for each new tranche of customers and steps down each year, capped at a 10% annual reduction. Exports are metered instantly and credited at the RCP; imports are billed at the customer's retail rate, with no netting between the two. Salt River Project is not regulated by the ACC and runs its own solar price plans. Customers who interconnected before the change keep retail-rate netting for 20 years.
Program details
| Compensation mechanism | Net billing. Exported energy is purchased at the RCP export rate; there is no netting of imports against exports. Retail-rate net metering is closed to new residential solar customers. |
|---|---|
| Export rate | Set per utility, not statewide. APS: $0.05554/kWh. TEP: $0.0513/kWh, with $0.0462/kWh pending for October 1, 2026. The rate a customer receives is the tranche in effect when they applied to interconnect, locked for 10 years. |
| Rate effective | APS: September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027 (Tranche 2026). TEP: October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, with the next rate effective October 1, 2026. |
| Credit rollover | Yes. A bill credit larger than the customer's monthly bill is applied to the next monthly bill, and to subsequent bills if necessary. |
| Credit expiration | Balances are settled annually rather than forfeited. APS: after the December bill, credits over $25 are refunded by check; smaller balances carry forward to the following year. TEP: on the October bill (September usage), balances over $10 are paid out; smaller balances carry forward. |
| Annual true-up | APS: annual settlement after the December bill. TEP: annual settlement on the October bill, covering September usage. |
| Residential system cap | APS Rate Rider RCP states no size limit; the generator must be on-site, installed behind the billing meter, and serve the customer's load. TEP Rider-14 limits capacity to 125% of the customer's total connected load, or below the service drop capacity where load data does not exist. |
| Commercial system cap | APS Rate Rider RCP is residential-only. New non-residential solar is served under separate net billing riders: EPR-6 for business net metering, and EPR-2 / E-56R for larger generators, the latter for nameplate capacity at or below 100 kW-ac. TEP Rider-14 covers residential and small general service customers. |
| Aggregate program cap | Not yet verified |
| Program status | Open to new applicants. Rate Rider RCP and TEP Rider-14 set no enrollment cap or aggregate program limit; the annual tranche step-down is the mechanism that reduces compensation over time. |
| Regulator | Arizona Corporation Commission for APS, Tucson Electric Power, and UniSource Energy Services. Salt River Project is not ACC-regulated and sets its own solar price plans. |
| Docket | ACC Decision No. 82122 sets the APS Tranche 2026 RCP. The framework dates to Decision No. 75859 (2017), implemented in Decision No. 76295. TEP's October 1, 2026 rate is pending in ACC Docket No. E-01933A-26-0169. |
| Governing rule | FPA tariff filings rather than statute: APS Rate Rider RCP (A.C.C. No. 6248, Revision No. 11) and TEP Rider-14 (RCP-PRS). Generators must also meet the Arizona Administrative Code Distributed Generation Interconnection Requirements. |
| Grandfathering | Customers who took service before the RCP replaced net metering keep retail-rate netting for 20 years from the date their system was interconnected. Moving from a grandfathered net metering rider to the RCP rider is permitted but one-way: the customer cannot switch back. Increasing system capacity by 10% or 1 kW-ac, whichever is greater, ends the locked RCP rate. |
| Interconnection application | An interconnection application is filed with the utility and the RCP rate is set by the date that application is submitted, not the date the system is switched on. The installation must then be completed and approved within 180 days. Customers need an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meter. |
| Interconnection timeline | APS: installation and approval by the Authority Having Jurisdiction within 180 days of the interconnection application. That extends to 270 days where the delay is caused by a third party or by APS rather than the customer or their installer. |
| Pending change | TEP's next RCP of $0.0462/kWh is listed as Pending in TEP's Statement of Charges, effective October 1, 2026, subject to ACC approval. TEP applied on May 1, 2026; the Utilities Division filed a Memorandum and Proposed Order on August 27, 2026 and the matter appeared on the ACC's September 10, 2026 Open Meeting agenda. |
Rates by utility
State rules set the framework. Individual utilities often pay something different, and where they do the utility tariff governs.
| Arizona Public Service (APS) | $0.05554/kWh September 1, 2026 - August 31, 2027 Tranche 2026 RCP under ACC Decision No. 82122. Down 10% from $0.06171 the prior tranche, the maximum annual reduction the framework allows. |
|---|---|
| Tucson Electric Power (TEP) | $0.0513/kWh October 1, 2025 - September 30, 2026 $0.0462/kWh is listed as Pending for October 1, 2026, subject to ACC approval in Docket No. E-01933A-26-0169. |
| UniSource Energy Services (UNS) | Not yet verified for the 2026 tranche Set October 1 each year by ACC order UNS Electric runs its own annual Resource Comparison Proxy tranche under the same ACC framework as APS and TEP. UNS's public RCP page last posted $0.0680/kWh for October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025; the current rate is published in the UNS Electric Statement of Charges, which we have not yet read for this record. We are leaving the figure unstated rather than carry a stale one forward. |
| Salt River Project (SRP) | $0.0345/kWh fixed, on the Time-of-Use Export plan May 2026 billing cycle SRP is not ACC-regulated. The Customer Generation and Average Demand plans use net metering instead. SRP reduced prices by $0.0038/kWh across the board for the May-October 2026 billing cycles due to lower natural gas and market power costs. |
Sources read for this record
- aps.com-/media/APS/APSCOM-PDFs/Utility/Regulatory-and-Legal/Regulatory-Plan-D
- aps.com-/media/APS/APSCOM-PDFs/Utility/Regulatory-and-Legal/Regulatory-Plan-D
- docs.tep.comwp-content/uploads/714-Rider-14-RCP.pdf
- docs.tep.comwp-content/uploads/TEP-Statement-of-Charges.pdf
- edocket.azcc.govsearch/docket-search/item-detail/29909
- srpnet.comprice-plans/residential-electric/solar/compare-solar-plans
Keep reading
- Every state we track
- How these figures are sourced and dated
- California — No single statewide export rate. Compensation is set by the CPUC Avoid
- Colorado — No single statewide dollar export rate. Under ordinary net metering, m
- Florida — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh export rate. Monthly net exports ar
- Hawaii — Hawaiian Electric Smart Renewable Energy Export rates for 2024-2026, i
- Illinois — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh rate. For new residential and small
- Massachusetts — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh rate. For ordinary qualifying solar
- New Jersey — One-for-one retail-rate credit against delivered electricity during th
- New York — No single statewide $/kWh rate. The Value Stack is calculated from uti
- Texas — No statewide rate. Published municipal examples include Austin Energy