” Instead of receiving 15 cents per kilowatt-hour rebates for power the solar users send back to the grid, APS wants to reduce the rebate to 4 to 10 cents. This would add $50 to $100 a month to the power bills of solar users. The utility also wants to start charging solar users a monthly maintenance fee.”
Since I am paying between 6 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour depending on the time of day (budget billing), I think maybe the 15 cents per hour might be a little steep. Maybe the 4 to 10 cent rate is the more realistic figure. That said, I also am against any "maintance fee" from the power companies.
My husband and I went the Solar City route earlier this year and the big difference we see is in being able to run hot water anytime (we were on the 9-9 energy saving system before and got it grandfathered into our lease with the solar panels). We are pretty frugal in our energy use and our monthly bills have always been very economical because we didn’t run the air much between the daytime hours. We do still keep it on at around 83 when we are all out but it does get run more since going to solar. Our energy bills are still less than before and I do not like it that APS is trying to SQUEEZE the solar city companies. I encourage everyone to get solar - better get on the leasing bandwagon before they (APS) get the rebates axed.