Most owners of solar panels have connected their utilities to the larger electricity grid. It’s practical this way.
It assures you of a power supply despite the lack of sun, a gloomy season, or bad weather. You can also get certain rebates from the excess electricity from the panels that you can choose to send back to the grid for other people to use.
How Do You Benefit from Your Excess Solar?
The most obvious answer to the question is that any solar power you no longer need to power your home is considered excess. This unused energy flows back into the grid. It is circulated for the community to use.
All houses connected to the same grid where your solar energy flows will benefit from the clean energy you have shared with the grid. On the other hand, you will get compensated in return.
For instance, if your solar has produced more energy than needed for a billing cycle, then your utility provider will give you credit for the power you sent to the main grid.
The credit varies on the available promotions of the utility provider.
More on Solar Export Credit
After installing a rooftop solar, you have to get updates regarding the solar export credit details in your area and the utility provider. As of 2020, a new Export Credit Rate has been approved by the Utah Public Service Commission.
This means that for every kilowatt-hour of energy you have shared with the grid, you are eligible for 5 cents of the Export Credit Rate.
All new solar installations are qualified for the rate. Credit is like a payment for the excess power you have exported to the grid.
Once you have received the credit, it will reflect on your bill and be based on the FiT rate or feed-in tariff.
Rocky Mountain Power Customers
Rocky Mountain Power is among the utilities now offering solar export credit to their clients. Instead of the usual net metering system, they are transitioning into a new tariff system.
They paid solar owners 9.2 cents per kWh for their solar exports. This is ideal than paying a full retail rate as compensation for solar production.
The 9.2 cents per kWh measurement was reduced to around 5 cents per kWh for new solar installations. This is in accordance with PSC or the Public Service Commission’s order.
Based on the example, the value of residential solar has been reduced. However, it doesn’t mean that it is no longer viable.
Despite the lower export credit rate, it is still beneficial to rely on solar power. This is done to make everything work for consumers and utility providers.
To check the export credit rate on your bill, you must know that it is divided into three.
The first part of the bill reflects the sum of your total. The next section is the amount less the credits. The last section is the energy your solar panels produce during the daytime (when you don’t consume electricity).
