Which APS Rate Plan Works Best for a Phoenix Home That Exports a Lot of Solar Power?

Why Does Your APS Rate Plan Matter So Much When You Export Solar Power?

The plan you are on determines what APS pays you for every kilowatt-hour you send back to the grid, and the difference between plans is not small. A Phoenix home exporting 300 to 400 kilowatt-hours per month earns meaningfully more on the right rate plan than on the wrong one. Choose poorly, and you may pay demand charges that wipe out months of export credits in a single billing cycle.

The short answer: for most homes that generate a lot of solar without a battery, Saver Choice (E-26) is the right plan. For homes pairing solar with a battery, Saver Choice Max (E-28) unlocks the largest savings. Saver Choice Plus (E-27) adds a demand charge that almost always punishes solar-only homes, so it rarely makes sense for residential solar without battery storage.

What Are the Three APS Rate Plans Solar Customers Can Choose?

APS requires all solar customers to be on a time-of-use rate plan. That means the price you pay for power, and the credit you earn for exports, changes based on when those kilowatt-hours flow. Three plans are available to residential solar customers: E-26, E-27, and E-28.

Saver Choice (E-26) is the most common choice for solar-only systems. The monthly service charge is $15. In summer, which runs June through September, on-peak hours are 3 PM to 8 PM on weekdays. The on-peak energy rate is about 28.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Off-peak hours cover everything outside that window and all weekends, priced at about 10.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. There is no demand charge, which keeps your bill predictable month to month.

Saver Choice Max (E-28) pushes the gap between peak and off-peak rates to its widest. Summer on-peak power costs roughly 43.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, while off-peak power drops to about 6.75 cents. The monthly service charge is also $15, and there is no demand component. That extreme spread is what makes E-28 valuable for homeowners with battery storage, but it can raise bills for solar-only customers who pull power from the grid during evening peak hours.

Saver Choice Plus (E-27) trades some energy charges for a demand charge. The monthly demand charge runs about $13 per kilowatt of peak demand, meaning your bill includes a charge based on the highest power draw your home registers during on-peak hours in the billing period. Even a brief air-conditioner startup can set a high demand reading. Energy rates on E-27 are lower than on E-26, but the demand charge makes this plan unpredictable and costly for solar-only homes.

Which APS Rate Plan Works Best for a Phoenix Home That Exports a Lot of Solar Power?

For a home with solar panels but no battery, Saver Choice (E-26) is the better fit for managing aps rate plan solar export math. It gives you retail-rate credits on exported energy throughout the billing period, carries no demand charge risk, and keeps the math straightforward. The critical issue: most solar export happens during off-peak hours, so those credits land at around 10.3 cents per kilowatt-hour rather than the 28.8-cent on-peak rate.

This timing mismatch is what catches many Phoenix homeowners off guard. Solar panels produce peak power between roughly 10 AM and 2 PM, but APS does not switch to on-peak pricing until 3 PM. By the time the grid is most expensive, your panels are producing less. A high-exporting solar-only home earns mostly off-peak credits, and any annual surplus beyond 100 percent of annual usage gets paid at only 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour at year-end under the NET-2 true-up rules.

If you add a home battery to the system, Saver Choice Max (E-28) changes the math entirely. You charge the battery during midday off-peak hours at roughly 6.75 cents, then discharge during the 3-to-8 PM window to avoid paying 43.3 cents from the grid. Each kilowatt-hour shifted this way captures a spread of about 36.5 cents, and that spread pays off a battery much faster than the same battery on E-26.

Does the APS Rate Plan for Solar Export Change in Winter?

Yes, the on-peak window shifts in winter. From October through May, APS on-peak hours run from 5 PM to 9 PM on weekdays rather than 3 PM to 8 PM. This narrows the timing mismatch slightly in winter, because solar production does not decline as sharply by 5 PM in fall and spring as it does on a June afternoon. But the core pattern holds: most solar export still happens before the on-peak window opens, and credits accumulate at the lower off-peak rates for most of the production day.

Why Does the Solar Export Timing Problem Affect Arizona Homes So Directly?

Phoenix gets between 5.5 and 6.5 peak sun hours per day on average across the year, with summer days pushing well above 6.5 hours. That is exceptional solar output compared to the national average of 4 to 5 peak sun hours. A 10-kilowatt system in Phoenix generates roughly 16,500 to 18,500 kilowatt-hours per year. In a heavy summer month, that system might produce 1,800 kilowatt-hours while the household uses 1,400. The 400-kilowatt-hour daily surplus flows to the grid in the morning and midday hours, most of it before 3 PM.

The home then pulls from the grid between 6 PM and 10 PM for cooking, cooling, and appliances. On Saver Choice (E-26), that evening draw costs 28.8 cents per kilowatt-hour in summer. On Saver Choice Max (E-28) without a battery, it costs 43.3 cents. The homeowner exported at 10.3 cents and imported at 43.3 cents: a losing trade that no rate plan eliminates without storage in place.

How Much Does Choosing the Wrong APS Rate Plan Cost a Phoenix Solar Home?

A solar-only home on Saver Choice Plus (E-27) that exports 300 kilowatt-hours per month still faces a demand charge on any month the AC or pool pump runs during on-peak hours. If a compressor startup sets a demand reading of 5 kilowatts during the 3-to-8 PM window, that adds a $65 charge before a single kilowatt-hour of energy is billed. Over a full year, that can run $500 to $780 in demand charges that the lower energy rates on E-27 rarely offset for a solar-only home. Saver Choice (E-26) avoids this exposure entirely.

The difference between E-26 and E-28 for a solar-only home without a battery is more subtle but still real. If your household pulls 3 kilowatt-hours from the grid during peak each day in summer, that costs about 86 cents on E-26 but about $1.30 on E-28. Over 30 summer days, the extra cost on E-28 approaches $13 per month from that grid draw alone, and high exporters without batteries typically still pull some peak power for evening use.

How the APS Rate Plan Choice Plays Out Across Phoenix Valley Neighborhoods

APS and SRP serve the Phoenix Valley by neighborhood, not by city. Your utility depends on your specific address, so always check a recent APS bill to confirm which utility serves your home before assuming a plan applies to you. That said, many households across Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Peoria, and parts of Mesa and Glendale are APS customers, and the rate plan decision applies equally wherever APS serves your address.

In Scottsdale neighborhoods served by APS, where larger homes often carry higher summer cooling loads, the choice between E-26 and E-28 frequently depends on whether the household also runs a pool pump. A pool pump cycling during the afternoon can create a significant demand figure if the home were on E-27, making E-26 the safer baseline for solar-only systems regardless of how much the home exports.

In Tempe and Mesa APS neighborhoods, older construction with less efficient insulation tends to draw more grid power during the evening peak. Those homes benefit most from sizing solar to cover close to 100 percent of annual usage and keeping the plan simple on E-26 rather than chasing the E-28 spread without battery storage.

In Chandler and Gilbert, newer builds often have better insulation and smarter load controls, which reduces peak demand somewhat. Some homeowners there do manage to shift enough load to make E-28 work without a battery, but the cleaner path is still pairing E-28 with a battery and using automated dispatch to capture the full 36-cent peak-to-off-peak spread.

In Peoria and Glendale APS neighborhoods, the same logic applies. If APS serves your address, your plan options are identical to any other APS customer in the valley. Use the Solar Calculator to estimate how different plan structures affect your specific usage and export profile before committing to a plan change.

How the Prepaid Solar Lease Changes the APS Rate Plan Calculation

The rate plan decision and the financing path are connected. A homeowner who chooses the prepaid solar lease gets the system at a 30 percent discount compared to buying outright, because the leasing company can pass through the 48E commercial clean energy credit through 2027. This is not tax advice; consult a qualified tax professional about how credits apply to your situation. That lower upfront cost affects how quickly different rate plan savings scenarios pay off.

A Phoenix homeowner who finances a solar-plus-battery system at a 30 percent discount shortens the payback period on the battery, and that battery is exactly what unlocks the full advantage of Saver Choice Max (E-28). The two decisions, financing and rate plan, reinforce each other in a way that a solar-only loan purchase cannot replicate.

Homeowners who looked at solar in 2025 and held off partly because the federal residential tax credit seemed like a necessary piece of the math: the Section 25D residential credit expired at the end of 2025 for owner-purchased systems. The 30 percent discount through the prepaid lease is still available, because the 48E pass-through benefit applies to leased and prepaid systems rather than owned ones. The economics remain strong for the right home and the right plan combination.

Phoenix Valley Solar works as a solar broker, not an installer. That means we gather competing bids from vetted Arizona installers and lay out the rate plan math alongside the financing options so you can see the full picture before signing anything. There is no obligation to choose a particular brand or contractor. If you want to see what the numbers look like for your home, contact us or start with our Solar Calculator.

For a deeper look at how export credits work under the APS NET-2 program, see our guide on how to maximize your solar export credits in Phoenix. To see how APS and SRP peak hours compare for solar billing, the APS peak hours guide for 2026 covers the on-peak timing details that matter most when choosing a plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best APS rate plan for solar customers in Phoenix?

Saver Choice (E-26) is the best APS rate plan for most solar-only homes in Phoenix. It provides retail-rate credits on exported power with no demand charge risk. Homes that pair solar with a battery often do better on Saver Choice Max (E-28), which has a wider peak-to-off-peak pricing spread worth about 36 cents per kilowatt-hour.

How much does APS pay for excess solar power sent back to the grid?

APS credits solar exports at the time-of-use rate that applies when power is exported, roughly 10.3 cents off-peak or 28.8 cents on-peak on the E-26 plan in summer. Annual surplus credits beyond 100 percent of your usage are paid at about 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour at year-end under the NET-2 true-up rules.

Can I switch my APS rate plan after going solar in Arizona?

Yes, APS allows solar customers to switch between the approved residential time-of-use rate plans. You can request a change through your online APS account or by calling customer service. Review how your export timing aligns with on-peak hours before switching, because a plan change that helps in summer may not help in winter months.

What are APS on-peak hours for solar customers?

APS on-peak hours in summer (June through September) run from 3 PM to 8 PM on weekdays. In winter (October through May), on-peak runs from 5 PM to 9 PM on weekdays. Weekends and holidays are off-peak all year. Most solar production in Phoenix happens between 10 AM and 2 PM, which is off-peak on all APS time-of-use plans.

How do I compare solar installers in Phoenix for the best APS rate plan savings?

Work with an independent solar broker in Phoenix who can model your usage under each APS rate plan before recommending a system size and battery configuration. Getting competing quotes from multiple vetted installers, rather than relying on a single company's projections, ensures you compare realistic production and bill savings figures side by side.

Is Saver Choice Max better for high-exporting solar homes in Arizona?

Saver Choice Max (E-28) is better for high-exporting homes only when a battery is part of the system. Without storage, the 43.3-cent on-peak rate raises your evening grid costs beyond what the lower off-peak rate saves. With a battery storing cheap midday solar and discharging during the expensive peak window, E-28 becomes the most effective APS plan available.