Though the limit for solar installations is 30 per month for ED3 customers, the number of permits has declined to single digits.

By Ethan McSweeney

The number of solar installations in Maricopa has dropped significantly since the city’s electrical utility put a monthly limit into effect last year.

So far for 2016, 13 applications for solar installations have been approved, according to the city. That’s a steep decline from the 332 applications received at this point a year ago. It is also far below the allowable limit.

There were 829 applications granted in all of 2015, and 346 in 2014.

Electrical District No. 3, the utility that serves Maricopa, limited the number of solar installations it would approve last year to 30 each month. The limit, effective July 1, 2015, was put into place because ED3 did not want to be “overwhelmed” by the amount of solar on its system, said Bill Stacy, general manager for the utility.

About 6.2 percent of ED3’s customers use solar, according to Stacy, which is about double the rate Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electrical utility, has on its grid.

“We wanted to control the amount of solar,” Stacy said about the monthly limit. “We wanted to make sure it didn’t impact the reliability of our system, and so far it hasn’t.”

The decrease in the number of solar installations means that ED3 has not yet hit its 30 per month cap since the limit was put into effect, Stacy said.

Robert Mathias, development manager for the city of Maricopa, said prior to the monthly limit going into effect, the city was inundated with hundreds of solar installation applications.

“That limit was being installed at a certain date and so people were trying to get in before then,” Mathias said.

For 2014 and the first six months of 2015, prior to the monthly limit going into effect, the average number of solar installations per month was 42. From last October through April, the average number of applications per month was less than 4.

The monthly limit came into effect around the same time ED3 increased the fixed rate costs for solar from 70 cents per kilowatt hour to $3 per kilowatt hour. These changes were made to ensure that solar customers paid “their fair share” of the fixed costs for the utility, Stacy said.

Several companies, like SolarCity, have stopped doing solar installations in Maricopa since the changes went into effect.

Stacy said the reason these solar companies have pulled out may have to do with the changes to the fixed costs for solar.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

1 COMMENT

  1. " These changes were made to ensure that solar customers paid “their fair share” of the fixed costs for the utility, Stacy said"

    Why is it always that every time someone wants someone else to pay "their fair share," it usually means that they want someone else to pay a drastically higher price?

    The article seems to imply that it is just the number of installations that was the limit, where instead it was the fact that ED-3 decided to nearly quintuple the price for electricity for solar customers.