Berkeley Electric Cooperative member owned solar: tiers, fees and insurance

How the size is measured

the AC rating in kW. Berkeley states both program limits in kWAC and publishes an explicit sizing formula in AC kilowatts, which makes it unambiguous.

Size bands and what each one obliges

Residential, up to 20 kWAC Size 0 to 20 kW	A $150 one time interconnection fee is due before processing, plus $50 per field inspection. A copy of the homeowners insurance declaration must be submitted; no dollar amount of coverage is published. Exported energy is credited at 6.03 cents per kWh, updated each year around 1 March. $150 interconnection fee before processing $50 per field inspection Copy of the homeowners insurance declaration page A non demand, non time of day rate
Small commercial, up to 100 kWAC Size 20.001 to 100 kW	Available where the account transformer is under 100 kVa. Accounts over 100 kVa may install larger systems but receive no surplus credit value. $150 interconnection fee before processing $50 per field inspection Transformer under 100 kVa for surplus credit eligibility

Residential, up to 20 kWAC Size 0 to 20 kW

A $150 one time interconnection fee is due before processing, plus $50 per field inspection. A copy of the homeowners insurance declaration must be submitted; no dollar amount of coverage is published. Exported energy is credited at 6.03 cents per kWh, updated each year around 1 March.

$150 interconnection fee before processing
$50 per field inspection
Copy of the homeowners insurance declaration page
A non demand, non time of day rate

Small commercial, up to 100 kWAC Size 20.001 to 100 kW

Available where the account transformer is under 100 kVa. Accounts over 100 kVa may install larger systems but receive no surplus credit value.

$150 interconnection fee before processing
$50 per field inspection
Transformer under 100 kVa for surplus credit eligibility

The screens that decide it

Sized within Berkeley’s published production formula Limit 20 kW.
Berkeley sizes the system from consumption, not from roof area: annual kWh use divided by 1,800 gives the AC kW size, or average monthly kWh divided by 150. On most homes that formula binds well before the 20 kWAC ceiling does, so compute it from the customer’s bill before quoting. It is the only explicit kWh to kW sizing rule found among the cooperatives in this region.

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

What insurance amount is actually required? Berkeley asks for the homeowners insurance declaration page but publishes no minimum coverage figure.
What screens and review timeline apply? The interconnection standard is published only as an unreadable image scan.
Is this account on a time of day or demand billed rate? The program requires a non demand billed rate, which is a disqualifier to check before the sale, not after.

Worth knowing before you quote

The only published timeline is roughly two weeks, in calendar days, from the building code official releasing the job to the bidirectional meter being installed. There is no published approval clock. A meter tampering charge of up to $1,000 applies.

Source

Berkeley Electric Cooperative published solar and renewable energy program terms, with the Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources Up to 500 KVA

Read and recorded 2026-09-12. Rural electric cooperative, outside the South Carolina interconnection standard. The cooperative's own published documents govern. The 0421 interconnection standard is published only as an image scan with no text layer, so its tiers, insurance amounts, screens and timelines have not been read. Everything recorded here comes from the program pages.

All South Carolina 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