Report on APS Incentive Rebate Reduction Hearing

by Michael Sawicky

Yesterday I spent the whole day at the Arizona Corporation Commission so that I could learn first-hand how they would rule on the APS request to reduce the Incentive Rebate to from $3.00 down to $2.15.

The Commission approved the change (to $2.15/watt), but only after making four amendments. These amends, along with some other information that was revealed during public testimony and questioning, are of material interest to solar contactors as well as customers. The items below describe the major points of interest.

Carve-out for Solar Thermal – An amended was made that requires APS to set aside $900,000 of the remaining 2010 residential incentive funds specifically for solar water heating.

Cut-off Date for $3.00/Watt Applications – An amendment was made that set the cut-off April 2nd 2010 as the cut-off date for reservation applications at the $3.00/watt incentive level. This means that about 4 million dollars of the incentive funds were consumed over the three days of 3/31 to 4/2, which effectively depletes the fund until July 1st. (see the last note below)

APS Transparency – An amendment was made that requires APS to report on its website at the beginning of each week the amount of Residential UFI funding remaining for the current reservation period and the number of new reservations confirmed by APS in the past week along with any project cancellations that have occurred in the same period.

Reservations for Remainder of 2010 – An amended was made that requires the remainder of 2010 be divided into tranches of funding: April 1st to July 1st, July 2nd to October 1st, October 2nd to December 31st. At least $5 million is to be reserved for the second tranche. If all of the 2010 funds are exhausted during the second tranche, APS can initiate reservations in the third tranche that will be funded after January 1st 2011. (This effectively brings additionally reservation approvals into 2010.)

No More Applications Approved Until July 1st – During the proceedings, APS testified that all of the funds for the “1st tranche” have already been depleted. This seems to mean that no additional applications can be approved until after July 1st.

Future Incentive Levels – Based on the testimony given, it seems likely that the incentive will be reduced again in October down to $1.95/watt because the program will have met the volume threshold that requires such a reduction. For similar reasons, it is likely that beginning in 2011 the incentive will be reduced to $1.75/watt.


Michael Sawicky
Solar Broker
Solar Savant, LLC
www.SolarSavant.net

Note: This article was first posted on the AZ Solar Center Group Mailing List.