How does Fort Collins Utilities distributed energy resources measure system size?

The published limits do not say whether they are measured in alternating or direct current.

Fort Collins Utilities distributed energy resources: tiers, fees and insurance

How the size is measured: not published

The published limits here are stated in kilowatts without saying whether that is the inverter rating in alternating current or the array rating in direct current. On a system near a threshold that decides which band it lands in, so the checker asks the question rather than choosing an answer.

Size bands and what each one obliges

Under 40 kVA Size 0 to 40 kW	No insurance is required below 40 kVA. No application fee and no study deposit are published at any size, confirmed by reading the full standard. Protection requirements step up at 100 kVA and utility monitoring at 250 kVA for inverter connected resources. Manually operated lockable disconnect switch with a visual break, visible and near the meter, accessible at all times NABCEP certified contractor in the Participating Solar Contractor Network Modules on the California Energy Commission approved equipment list, even though this is Colorado
40 kVA to 500 kVA Size 40.001 to 500 kW	Liability insurance with a combined single limit for bodily injury and property damage of not less than $300,000 each occurrence is required, with Fort Collins Utilities named as additional interest, 30 days notice of cancellation, and a certificate before operation. This threshold catches most commercial quotes without anyone noticing. $300,000 combined single limit liability insurance Fort Collins Utilities named as additional interest Certificate of insurance before operation
Above 500 kVA to 1 MW Size 500.001 to 1000 kW	Insurance rises to not less than $2,000,000 for each occurrence. Above one megawatt the amount is determined case by case. $2,000,000 each occurrence liability insurance

Under 40 kVA Size 0 to 40 kW

No insurance is required below 40 kVA. No application fee and no study deposit are published at any size, confirmed by reading the full standard. Protection requirements step up at 100 kVA and utility monitoring at 250 kVA for inverter connected resources.

Manually operated lockable disconnect switch with a visual break, visible and near the meter, accessible at all times
NABCEP certified contractor in the Participating Solar Contractor Network
Modules on the California Energy Commission approved equipment list, even though this is Colorado

40 kVA to 500 kVA Size 40.001 to 500 kW

Liability insurance with a combined single limit for bodily injury and property damage of not less than $300,000 each occurrence is required, with Fort Collins Utilities named as additional interest, 30 days notice of cancellation, and a certificate before operation. This threshold catches most commercial quotes without anyone noticing.

$300,000 combined single limit liability insurance
Fort Collins Utilities named as additional interest
Certificate of insurance before operation

Above 500 kVA to 1 MW Size 500.001 to 1000 kW

Insurance rises to not less than $2,000,000 for each occurrence. Above one megawatt the amount is determined case by case.

$2,000,000 each occurrence liability insurance

The screens that decide it

Within the owned system program size Limit 12 kW.
For a customer owned project the maximum size is the larger of 12 kW DC or 200 percent of average annual use. A leased or third party owned system is capped 40 percent lower, at the larger of 7.2 kW or 120 percent of average annual use, so a leased deal sized like a cash deal will be rejected. A new home with no usage history has consumption estimated at 3 kWh per square foot of conditioned floor area per year. The minimum system is 500 watts.
Minimum daytime load rather than fifteen percent of peak 100 percent of line section minimum load, a figure only the utility holds.
There is no fifteen percent screen at Fort Collins. A study is triggered where the total resource kVA on the feeder or feeder section reaches 100 percent of the previous year’s minimum daytime load, taken as 7am to 7pm, for photovoltaic resources, or 100 percent of minimum load for anything else. That is a materially different and generally more permissive denominator than fifteen percent of peak.
Transformer and imbalance limits 100 percent of service transformer rating, a figure only the utility holds.
A study is triggered where total resource kVA through the distribution transformer reaches 100 percent of its rating, where single phase non inverter resources on a single phase transformer reach 20 kVA, or where single phase resources create an imbalance greater than 90 kVA of export capacity between two phases. Induction machines of 300 kVA or more also trigger study.

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

What was the previous year’s minimum daytime load on this feeder section? That is the denominator, and it is utility data.
How long will review and permission to operate take? No approval or permission to operate commitment of any kind appears in Revision 10.
Is this system owned or leased? The leased cap is 7.2 kW or 120 percent of usage against 12 kW or 200 percent for owned, which is a 40 percent difference before anything else is considered.

Worth knowing before you quote

No application fee, no study deposit and no aggregate program cap are published, all confirmed by reading Revision 10 end to end. Credits are based on the active time of day rate when energy was returned, unused credits roll over monthly, and Fort Collins does not pay out accumulated credits unless the net credit exceeds $300 on 1 March, the account is over a year old and the customer is not receiving all standard services. The disconnect is always required with no small system exemption, within ten feet of the meter or with a visible weatherproof placard, and one switch may cover both photovoltaic and battery. Batteries must be programmed either to store surplus solar for site loads or to optimize against the time of day rate, must be at least 6 kWh, and must stay connected to the internet. Applications run through a contractor portal. Installation must be complete within six months of project approval. A separate city building services inspection is required in addition to the utility inspection.

Source

Fort Collins Utilities Interconnection Standards for Distributed Energy Resources, Revision 10, September 2022, with the published residential solar and battery storage program terms

Read and recorded 2026-09-12. Municipal or public utility, outside its state's interconnection rule. Its own published documents govern. A Colorado municipal utility. The older fcgov.com document links are dead and the commercial solar page still points at a stale underscore filename; the hyphenated file above is the live one.

All Colorado interconnection rules

Size bands and what each one obliges

The screens that decide it

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

Worth knowing before you quote

What to do with this