Memphis Light, Gas and Water distributed generation

The screens that decide it

• Application fee is charged per kilowatt on an unstated basis

  The fee is $250 plus $5 per kW for residential and $500 plus $5 per kW for non residential, with decimals of .5 and above rounded up. Neither the procedures nor the application says which kilowatt figure is meant, and the form collects both kW DC and inverter kVA. On a 12 kW DC residential job the difference is a few dollars; on a 500 kW commercial job it is material. Payment is by check only, mailed or delivered, and technical review does not begin until it clears.

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

1. Which kilowatt figure does the $5 per kW application fee use, the DC nameplate or the inverter kVA? The documents collect both and define neither.
2. Is this address served by the downtown or medical center underground network? Distributed generation cannot be interconnected there at all, and the customer must instead interconnect to above ground standard distribution lines in the area.
3. Does this site have three phase service? If Memphis Light, Gas and Water provides three phase, the project must use three phases of generation.
4. What is the monthly electric service availability charge under options A and C? It is referenced but the amount lives in the Service Policy Manual.

Worth knowing before you quote

There is no net metering and no maximum system size published on any basis. There are no tiers, no review levels, no percentage caps and no screens of any kind, all confirmed by reading four documents in full. Insurance is required on every interconnection regardless of size, which is unusual: an original certificate from a company with an A.M. Best rating of no less than A:IX, at not less than $300,000 bodily injury per person, $700,000 for all persons in one occurrence, and $250,000 property damage. Export pays nothing on plain self generation; to be paid, the customer must sign a separate five year dispersed power production agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority at avoided cost, paid by direct deposit from TVA rather than by the utility. All options require a separate generation meter. Published estimates are in calendar weeks: 4 to 5 weeks for technical review and 4 to 8 weeks for the construction cost quote. A failed acceptance test, including one failed for an incomplete installation, costs $200 and restarts scheduling. The contractor must collect the generation meter socket in person from the Electric Meter Shop on weekdays between 7:00am and 2:30pm. Micro inverter systems require a fused AC disconnect. Number 6 AWG or larger wire is required at the meter. Where the 2017 procedures and the 2025 overview conflict, the Service Policy Manual prevails, and neither document reproduces it.

All Tennessee interconnection rules