South Central Power member owned solar net billing: tiers, fees and insurance

How the size is measured

the AC rating measured at the solar inverter. The published guidance is explicit that a residential array cannot exceed 25 kW AC measured at the solar inverter and a non residential array can go to 100 kW AC at the solar inverter. The tariff uses a looser term, design capacity, which it never defines, so the AC at the inverter reading is used here as the one South Central Power states in its own words.

Size bands and what each one obliges

Residential, up to 25 kW AC at the inverter Size 0 to 25 kW	An interconnection fee exists and must be received before installation can begin, but the amount is not published anywhere including the schedule of miscellaneous charges. No insurance requirement is published. Permission to operate is automatic once the bidirectional meter is installed and no letter is sent. Interconnection fee, amount not published, before installation begins Load side interconnection beyond the first means of disconnect
Non residential, up to 100 kW AC at the inverter Size 25.001 to 100 kW	The process and documents are identical to residential except that the applicable rate schedules differ. Above 100 kW AC the job goes to the key accounts group and is bilateral. Interconnection fee, amount not published Load side interconnection

Residential, up to 25 kW AC at the inverter Size 0 to 25 kW

An interconnection fee exists and must be received before installation can begin, but the amount is not published anywhere including the schedule of miscellaneous charges. No insurance requirement is published. Permission to operate is automatic once the bidirectional meter is installed and no letter is sent.

Interconnection fee, amount not published, before installation begins
Load side interconnection beyond the first means of disconnect

Non residential, up to 100 kW AC at the inverter Size 25.001 to 100 kW

The process and documents are identical to residential except that the applicable rate schedules differ. Above 100 kW AC the job goes to the key accounts group and is bilateral.

Interconnection fee, amount not published
Load side interconnection

The screens that decide it

Within 120 percent of a three year average of consumption
The facility is presumed not to exceed the member’s annual requirements only if it annually generates less than 120 percent of them, and those requirements are the average consumed annually over the previous three years across the facilities on the premises. A three year average rather than a single year is stricter on a household whose usage has recently risen, and this is the binding constraint on most South Central Power jobs. Compute it from three years of bills before quoting.

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

What is the interconnection fee? One is required before installation and the amount appears in no published document, including the schedule of miscellaneous charges.
What is Buckeye’s current avoided cost rate? The credit is Buckeye Power’s avoided cost rate as determined by Buckeye at its sole discretion, which is not a tariff number, and South Central Power itself describes the rate as volatile over the years.
What screens apply and how long will review take? No screens, no fifteen percent test, no minimum load test and no timeline of any kind are published.

Worth knowing before you quote

Two structural features change the savings model. Net billing settles each hour rather than monthly, so generation above the load in any single hour becomes excess for that hour, credited in the same month with no banking. And the credit rate is set by the wholesale supplier at its sole discretion rather than by tariff. Power purchase agreements are barred in South Central Power territory under Ohio law, though leases are allowed. The cooperative deals with the member directly and states that no interaction between it and installers will be needed, so price the coordination overhead accordingly. The tariff may be revised or amended by the board of trustees from time to time without notice. Note that the five percent net metering threshold that appears in search results for a similarly named cooperative belongs to Adams Electric Cooperative in Illinois and must not be attributed here.

Source

South Central Power Company Rate Schedule NB Net Billing, approved 21 December 2021 and effective 1 March 2022, with the published member owned solar process and frequently asked questions

Read and recorded 2026-09-12. Rural electric cooperative. An Ohio cooperative. There is no published distributed generation policy and no published interconnection agreement; the tariff points at a policy manual and a practices and procedures manual that are on file at the cooperative’s office rather than online.

All Ohio 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