Arizona rural electric coop continues its PV incentive programs

Arizona-based Mohave Electric Cooperative announced a continuation of its PV incentives to their 40,000 residential and non-residential members for 2018. Mohave’s SunWatts Energy Incentive Program will continue to offer rebates of $0.05/watt up to 50 kilowatts of capacity, or $2,500. In addition, Mohave will also be offering the Distributive Generation Service Connection Program, which will pay for exported PV electricity at the rate of $0.074/kWh, which is below retail rates for electricity but above wholesale prices in may places.

Both of these incentives require PV systems to be owned, not leased and renewable energy credits and similar attributes are conveyed to Mohave. Instead of the Distributive Generation Service Connection Program, a member may have the option of the Arizona Corporation Commission Distributed Generation Service Tariff.

Mohave has been active in employing PV as part of its electricity consumption portfolio for nearly a decade. The utility has two PV installations totaling 18.8 MW in their territory in a partnership with Constellation Energy, a unit of Exelon Corporation, plus a share of a 20 MW system with six other Arizona Rural Electric Coops. Mohave has also funded dozens of public and non-profit sector installations in its service territory. It is estimated that the cooperative’s PV peak capacity is over 10% of their overall 2016 capacity peak of over 208 megawatts.

Mohave’s service territory borders on Nevada, with its member service office located in Bullhead City, about 100 miles south-southeast of Las Vegas. The average electricity rate for the rural electric coop’s customers was $0.103/kWh in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.