“Arizona has an opportunity to set an important precedent for the treatment of residential distributed generation, particularly in showing other markets the smart and sustainable way to compensate solar customers for their electrical generation,” PACE explains. “The state has a utility, APS, that is committed to the growth of solar power on its system and that has a customer base that has invested significantly in the technology.”
As part of its look at the consequences of residential solar customers, PACE cites case studies from Hawaii and California, where the rapid deployment of solar rooftops created inequities for other customers. Some customers in Hawaii were forced to pay $10 more per month due to net metering practices, while state policy in California will cause non-solar customers to pay an additional $1.3 billion. Arizona, PACE explains, has an opportunity to avoid such situations by creating a fair and equitable plan for net metering.