Guide
How Arizona pays for exported solar: the export rate, not net metering
Updated
The single biggest misunderstanding in Arizona solar is that a kilowatt-hour you export is worth the same as one you avoid buying. In Arizona it is not, and the gap decides whether a system pays.
Arizona does not run retail net metering
Under classic net metering the meter simply runs backwards: every exported kilowatt-hour cancels one you would otherwise buy at the retail rate. Arizona moved away from that. Regulated utilities now credit exports at an export rate set through the Arizona Corporation Commission process, known as the Resource Comparison Proxy, or RCP. Tucson Electric Power describes it as "the rate used to calculate compensation for excess power produced by customers' private rooftop solar systems", applied to residential and small commercial customers who requested interconnection since September 20, 2018 (tep.com).
TEP also describes two features that matter more than the headline number. The rate "is based on average market costs for solar energy over a recent five-year period" and is "usually adjusted annually", but "customers are compensated for up to 10 years at the RCP export rate in place at the time they requested interconnection", and the rate "will not be allowed to fall more than 10 percent annually" (tep.com). Your export rate is therefore locked at the moment you apply, not at the moment you switch on.
Export rates change every year and each utility sets its own. TEP's page quoted an energy export rate of $0.0570 per kWh for October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025; we are not restating that as a current figure, because we cannot verify a 2026 rate on an official page today. Ask your utility, in writing, for the export rate that will apply to your interconnection date.
Why the gap matters more than the rate
Arizona residential electricity averaged 15.23 cents per kWh in May 2026, against 15.71 cents in May 2025 (EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A). If an export rate sits around a third of that, then a kilowatt-hour you use yourself is worth roughly three times a kilowatt-hour you export. Everything follows from that one ratio.
- Size to your usage, not to your roof. An oversized array in Arizona sells its surplus cheaply. The extra panels are not free.
- Shift usage into daylight. Pre-cooling the house, running the pool pump and charging a car at midday converts low-value exports into high-value self-consumption at no capital cost.
- Batteries change the arithmetic, not the price. Storage moves midday generation to the evening peak. Whether that pays depends on the rate plan you are on, not on the battery.
- Check the plan, not just the panels. Utilities pair solar with specific rate plans, often time-of-use with a demand charge. The plan can move your bill more than the array size does.
Salt River Project is a different animal
SRP is a political subdivision of the State of Arizona rather than a Corporation Commission regulated utility, so it sets its own solar price plans and its own export terms, and the RCP framework described above does not apply to it in the same way. If you are an SRP customer, ask SRP directly which price plan a new solar customer is placed on and how exports are credited under it. The same caution applies to electric cooperatives.
What to ask your utility before you sign
- "What export rate applies to an interconnection application submitted this month, and for how many years is it locked?"
- "Which rate plan will I be moved to as a solar customer, and does it include a demand charge?"
- "What happens to my export rate when the lock period ends?"
Nothing on this page estimates your savings. Use the calculator for cost, then ask your utility for the export rate and rate plan that will actually apply to you.