Utilities · Phoenix Metro

APS in 2026: a decade-long lock you have to time right

Written by the Solar Learning Lab research deskUpdated August 17, 20268 min read

Most utilities pay solar exports at whatever rate happens to be current. Arizona Public Service runs a stranger and, for a decisive homeowner, more interesting machine: an annual tranche that steps down every September, capped at a 10 percent cut per year, that freezes for ten years the moment your interconnection application lands. The system rewards people who understand the calendar and quietly penalizes everyone who waits. Here is the full mechanism, documented from the tariff itself.

6.171¢

RCP export credit per kWh for the 2025 tranche, in force through August 31, 2026

10 yrs

How long an application-time RCP rate stays attached to your system after interconnection

180 days

Window to complete interconnection and keep the locked rate, extendable to 270 for third-party delay

APS compensates rooftop exports through Rate Rider RCP, a net billing credit set annually each September 1. The 2025 tranche pays $0.06171 per kWh through August 31, 2026; regulators voted August 12 to step it down the maximum 10 percent, to roughly $0.0554, for the year starting September 1. Whatever tranche is current when your complete application is filed locks for ten years, which makes the filing date a financial decision, not paperwork.

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How a tranche locks

The rider text is precise about sequence, and the sequence is the strategy. The RCP purchase rate is established for each annual tranche effective September 1. A customer is assigned the rate in effect at the time of the interconnection application, provided the interconnection is completed within 180 days, or 270 days when a third party such as the utility or the city inspection queue causes the delay. From the interconnection date, that rate applies for ten years. Monthly credits net against your bill, surpluses roll forward, and after the December bill any balance above $25 arrives as a check.

Eligibility requires solar PV interconnected to the APS distribution grid, residential service with an AMI meter, and generation behind the billing meter serving your own load first. None of this is exotic, but the 180-day clock means a signed contract in July with a slow installer can silently cost you a tranche.

Sources: APS Rate Rider RCP schedule; APS renewable energy riders.

The September step-down

The rider caps each annual reduction at 10 percent, and August 2026 showed why that clause matters. APS proposed cutting the export rate 36.8 percent to $0.04511. On August 12 the Arizona Corporation Commission voted to allow only the maximum 10 percent step, landing near $0.0554 effective September 1. Trade coverage of the vote also noted APS rooftop installations fell 12 percent in 2025 and 47 percent so far in 2026, and that a similar vote for Tucson Electric Power was expected the following month. We have not yet found an APS or Commission tariff page publishing the new figure, so treat it as pending until the schedule updates.

The arithmetic for a shopper is blunt. A complete application filed before September 1 rides at 6.171 cents for ten years; the same roof a month later earns about 6 percent less per exported kilowatt-hour, then faces every future step-down from a lower base.

Sources: PV Tech, ACC cuts Arizona solar export rate; AriSEIA ACC updates; current RCP tariff.

The rate plan underneath

The RCP is a rider, not a rate plan. It sits on top of a consumption schedule, and the one plan APS publishes in plain tiers, R-1, is restricted to homes without distributed generation. It is still useful context for what grid power costs in APS territory:

R-1 tier, annual average monthly use	Basic service charge	Energy charge
Small, 600 kWh or less	$0.362 / day	12.925¢ / kWh
Medium, 600 to 1,000 kWh	$0.458 / day	14.052¢ / kWh
Large, 1,000 kWh or more	$0.458 / day	15.418¢ / kWh

Source: APS Rate Schedule R-1, A.C.C. No. 6148, effective March 8, 2024. Not available to homes with on-site generation.

A solar household instead pairs the rider with a solar-eligible schedule like RTOUE47 or R3-47 from the APS plan index. Arizona's statewide averages frame the stakes: 1,075 kWh a month and a $160.24 bill in 2024, with the May 2026 average price at 15.23 cents per EIA Table 5A and Table 5.6.A. Air conditioning does the damage here, and it does it in the exact hours a west-facing array produces.

A 14 percent question mark

Everything above sits inside a live general rate case. The hearing ran 31 days between May 18 and July 7, 2026, a Recommended Opinion and Order is expected in late November, and the Commission must vote by December 31, with new rates expected in early 2027. The requested increase has been reported around 14 percent, roughly $240 a year for a typical household, and the case includes a proposed Formula Rate Adjustment Mechanism that would change how future increases happen. For solar owners the locked RCP rate is insulation on the export side, but consumption rates have no such lock, which mostly strengthens the self-consumption math.

Sources: Arizona Corporation Commission, what's next in the APS rate case; Arizona Capitol Times. Permit pathways and installer ratings live on our Phoenix page.

APS solar questions, answered

What exactly gets locked for ten years?

The RCP purchase rate in effect when you submit a complete interconnection application. Complete the interconnection within 180 days, or 270 if a third party causes the delay, and that rate rides with the system for a decade from the interconnection date. Your consumption rates are not locked; only the export credit is. Source: APS Rate Rider RCP schedule.

What happens to credits I do not use?

They roll forward month to month. After the December bill, any balance over $25 is refunded by check. The rider is a bill credit mechanism, not a power purchase contract, but the year-end true-up means overproduction is not simply lost.

Can the export rate ever drop more than 10 percent in a year?

Not under the current rider, which caps each annual step-down at 10 percent. That cap did real work in August 2026: APS asked for a 36.8 percent cut to $0.04511 and the Commission granted only the maximum 10 percent instead. Whether the cap itself survives the open rate case is a separate question. Source: PV Tech.

Am I on R-1 if I go solar with APS?

No. The R-1 fixed energy charge plan is explicitly limited to homes without on-site generation. Solar customers pair the RCP rider with a solar-eligible plan such as RTOUE47 or R3-47, and those schedules carry adjustors we could not fully verify this session. Treat any single cents-per-kWh quote for an APS solar home with suspicion until you see the plan stack in writing. Source: APS rates, schedules and adjustors.

How do I know my address is APS and not SRP?

APS serves about 1.4 million homes and businesses across 11 of Arizona's 15 counties and publishes a Phoenix metro territory map. The two utilities interleave across the valley, and the solar rules differ enough that the answer changes your whole payback model. Check the map, then read our SRP page if you land on the other side. Source: APS service area maps.

What we could not verify

Open as of August 17, 2026: an APS or Commission tariff page stating the $0.0554 export rate for the tranche starting September 1, the full rate values and adjustors for the solar-eligible RTOUE47 and R3-47 plans, any APS residential solar rebate (we found none; compensation runs through the RCP credit), and the final outcome of the rate case, which is undecided until the Commission votes. When the new tranche publishes, this page gets updated, per our editorial policy.

Model both tranche scenarios

Run the calculator with today's export value, then mentally haircut it 10 percent. If the deal only works at the higher number, that tells you something.

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