Utilities · Tucson, Arizona

TEP in 2026: the next export rate is already printed

SLWritten by the Solar Learning Lab research desk·Updated August 18, 2026·7 min read

Most utilities make you guess what happens to solar compensation next year. Tucson Electric Power puts it in writing. The tariff sheet for its Resource Comparison Proxy rider lists the current export rate, 5.13 cents per kWh, and directly beside it a pending rate of 4.62 cents awaiting a commission vote. For the 458,000 households TEP serves across the Tucson metro, the decision is not whether the export rate falls. It is whether your application is timestamped before it does.

What a TEP bill is made of

TEP's residential structure stacks a $15 monthly basic service charge, tiered delivery charges, a seasonal base power supply charge, and a purchased power and fuel adjustor that moves with the market. Solar customers move to time-of-use or demand plans, so the flat-rate numbers below are the baseline for comparison, not necessarily the plan you will hold after interconnection:

Source: TEP residential rates and tariff sheets.

Layer the rate case on top. TEP is asking the ACC for roughly a 12 percent revenue increase, about $13 a month at the 638 kWh median home, with new rates possible in late 2026. Every cent added to import prices widens the gap between what grid power costs and what exports pay, which is the core arithmetic of this territory: buy at 13 to 16, sell at 5, so the winning system consumes its own production.

Source: TEP 2025 rate case.

The battery program worth $720 a year

TEP runs an Energy Storage Rewards program that pays battery owners $120 per kW per season, up to $720 a year in bill credits, for letting TEP draw on the battery during summer peak events. With exports paying 5 cents, a battery that soaks up midday production, serves the evening peak, and earns event credits attacks the bill from three sides at once.

This is the same strategic conclusion we reached for Phoenix households on the APS page and the SRP page, arrived at through different rate mechanics. Arizona's three big utilities have all converged on cheap exports, and all three now pay real money for dispatchable home batteries. The Arizona page covers the statewide picture, including what the federal credit change did to system pricing.

Source: TEP Energy Storage Rewards.

What we could not verify

As of August 18, 2026: the current purchased power and fuel adjustor value in cents per kWh, which moves periodically; the exact date of the ACC vote on TEP's pending 4.62 cent export rate, which reporting places around September 2026 but no docket calendar we could read confirms; and per-kWh prices on TEP's solar time-of-use plans, which live in tariff PDFs we could not retrieve. We also note TEP's own marketing pages lagged the tariff sheet on the current export rate, which is why every number above cites the tariff side. Corrections run through our editorial policy.