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Net Metering Program
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UniSource Energy Services net metering in Arizona

Mohave and Santa Cruz counties, including Kingman, Lake Havasu City and Nogales. A sister company of Tucson Electric Power under the same parent, but a separate utility with its own tariffs.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
100K

What they credit you

5.51 cents, locked for ten years from interconnection

Published terms

UNS Electric pays the Resource Comparison Proxy rate set by the Corporation Commission. It is 5.51 cents a kilowatt hour for interconnection applications filed on or after 1 October 2026, down from 6.12 cents for those filed before that date. Whichever step you land on is locked for ten years from interconnection, and going solar also moves you onto a time of use rate.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-29 · source

Installers serving UniSource customers

Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.

Not sure which to choose?

These are real companies operating in UniSource territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are ordered by reviews, years trading and BBB grade. None of them pays us for placement. Pick the one you want and we will call you to arrange it.

Ordering combines three things we read from primary sources: Google review count and rating, years trading taken from the company’s Better Business Bureau profile rather than its own marketing, and its BBB letter grade. BBB accreditation is shown but never scored, because it is a paid membership rather than a mark of quality.

Check any contractor license yourself at the state register. Do that before you sign anything, with any company, including ours.

What this looks like on a UniSource bill

An average Arizona household, against a system sized to cover its year. The energy charge is the part that goes to zero. The fixed monthly charge underneath it is the part that never does, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

Meter readingkWh
Energy charge$163.19
$163.19
We have read this provider’s own tariff. What it still bills you at zero is set out below, with the sheet it came from. The energy line above uses the statewide average. See what they still bill
DirectionReading…

Meter reading falling from 41926 to 41626 kilowatt hours. A 1,075 kilowatt hour month against 1,375 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 300 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $163.19 to $0.00 at 15.18 cents per kilowatt hour.

Arizona average household use, 1,075 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.18¢ per kWh. Your utility still bills a fixed monthly customer charge that no system offsets, so this is the energy part of the bill, which is the part that goes away.

UniSource requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in UniSource territory.

UniSource does not credit the power you send back at the rate it charges you to take it.

That does not make solar a bad idea in UniSource territory. It changes what you should build. When exports are worth a fraction of retail the credit stops being the return, and the job becomes using more of your own production inside the house, which usually means a larger array than a one for one utility would need.

Sizing is where that gets decided, so ask about it directly. Arizona sets no simple kilowatt limit: APS’s own rider requires only that the system be on site, behind the billing meter, and serving the customer’s load, with any size then subject to the state interconnection requirements. UniSource sets its own limits. Ask UniSource what it allows before you accept that a bigger system is off the table.

A battery then does two separate jobs. It moves daytime production into the evening so you use it instead of selling it, and it keeps the house running when the grid goes down. That second job is not a bonus. Panels on their own shut off in an outage, by design, so a roof full of them powers nothing during a storm. That is the part we will not refer around.

So we treat it as a requirement, not an upgrade. We will not refer you for a panels-only system in UniSource territory, and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one without raising storage first.

Our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement

What your installer should be telling you

Ask UNS in writing which tranche your application falls into and get the date of receipt confirmed, because the rate is set by the date the application is filed and it is fixed for ten years after that. The Resource Comparison Proxy steps down again on 1 October 2027 and the Commission has not yet set that figure, so an application filed close to the date is worth getting in early rather than late. Ask separately what the time of use periods are on ERREST, since Rider-14 will move you onto that rate and the on-peak price is what decides whether the system pays.

What UniSource bills you anyway

In a month when your production covers everything you use, the energy charge can reach zero. This does not. It is the floor under every bill, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

The charge
$14.00 a month on the time of use rate a solar customer is put on
How it is set
Which figure applies depends on a choice the rider makes for you. The standard residential rate ERRES charges a Basic Service Charge of $17.00 a month, but Rider-14 requires a new solar customer to take the time of use rate ERREST, whose Basic Service Charge is $14.00 a month. UNS unbundles that $14.00 on its own sheet as Meter Services $2.94, Meter Reading $0.16, Billing and Collection $5.69 and Customer Delivery $5.21. Going solar therefore lowers your fixed charge by $3.00 a month and moves your energy onto on-peak and off-peak pricing, which is usually the larger effect by far.

ERREST Residential Service Time-of-Use, Original Sheet No. 102-0, effective 1 February 2024, Decision No. 79277 · checked 2026-09-29 · source

Applying to UniSource

What UniSource itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.

The rate falls every 1 October and the date you apply is the date you keep
UNS Electric’s Statement of Charges prints the whole Rider-14 ladder: 11.50 cents for September 2018, then 10.35, 10.35, 9.32, 8.39, 7.55, 6.80, and 6.12 cents from 1 October 2025. From 1 October 2026 it is 5.51 cents. Whichever step you interconnect under is locked for ten years, so an application filed a week apart can be worth a different amount for a decade.
Going solar moves you onto time of use, whether you wanted it or not
Rider-14 requires the customer to take service on a time of use residential rate. That changes what you pay for the power you buy as well as what you are paid for the power you sell, and for a household that is out all day it is usually the bigger of the two changes.
This is export compensation, not net metering
Arizona replaced net metering with a net billing framework: you are billed for everything you import at the retail time of use rate and paid the RCP rate for everything you export, instead of the two cancelling out. Self consumption is worth full retail; export is worth the RCP.

From UniSource’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-29 · source

UniSource net metering questions

Does UniSource offer one for one net metering?
No. UNS Electric pays the Resource Comparison Proxy rate set by the Corporation Commission. It is 5.51 cents a kilowatt hour for interconnection applications filed on or after 1 October 2026, down from 6.12 cents for those filed before that date. Whichever step you land on is locked for ten years from interconnection, and going solar also moves you onto a time of use rate.
What does UniSource pay for power sent back to the grid?
5.51 cents, locked for ten years from interconnection.
Do I need a battery with UniSource?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because UniSource does not credit exports one for one, the return has to come from using your own production rather than selling it, which after dark means storage and usually a larger array than a one for one utility would need. The other half is backup: panels alone shut off in an outage, so a battery is what keeps the house running in a storm. We do not refer panels-only systems in UniSource territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my UniSource bill?
Sign in at uesaz.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
What is the catch with UniSource?
Ask UNS in writing which tranche your application falls into and get the date of receipt confirmed, because the rate is set by the date the application is filed and it is fixed for ten years after that. The Resource Comparison Proxy steps down again on 1 October 2027 and the Commission has not yet set that figure, so an application filed close to the date is worth getting in early rather than late. Ask separately what the time of use periods are on ERREST, since Rider-14 will move you onto that rate and the on-peak price is what decides whether the system pays.