Alberta is a unique province when it comes to solar, and the benefits available for small solar microgenerators. Enmax Energy provides a great incentive to Easymax customers who have installed solar microgeneration onto their homes. Easymax Season Solar – a solar incentive program available for Easymax customers that is designed to maximize the return on your solar investment.

How does Easymax Seasonal Solar work?

Easymax Seasonal Solar is an electricity plan designed for small microgenerators. It consists of two different rates: the Easymax rate, either on a floating or fixed term, and the Easymax Seasonal Solar rate, which is set at a much higher rate – currently 30 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

During the times of the year with less sunlight, you can pay the cheaper Easymax rate when you need to import energy from the grid. But during months in which your energy production from solar exceeds your energy consumption, like during the summertime, you can switch to the Seasonal Solar rate.

According to the Alberta government’s Microgeneration regulation, compensation for electricity purchased from small microgeneration sites must be equal to that of energy purchased by the microgenerator. In other words, while on the Seasonal Solar rate, any electricity sold back to the grid will be sold at the Seasonal Solar rate – 30 cents/kWh.

Any electricity sold back to the grid will be reimbursed with bill credits. When the days get shorter, these bill credits will go a long way in paying off your monthly energy bills!

Should I consider the Seasonal solar rate?

There is a lot of potential benefit when signing up for the Seasonal Solar rate – but it is not made for every solar microgenerator.

Due to the high costs of buying electricity on the Seasonal Solar rate, having to import electricity while on the Seasonal Solar rate will end up being costly.

Easymax Seasonal Solar will only really make sense for microgenerators that regularly exceed the amount of energy they use in terms of their microgeneration production during the summer months.

It has been suggested that you should only use about 70% of your total production in the summer to really see the benefit. If you generate less energy than what you use, the costs of the Seasonal Solar rate will be expensive for you to take on.

When should I switch between rates?

The exact times you should consider switching depend on many factors, but Enmax suggests switching sometime in April, and back to the Easymax rate in October. Since May through September are the months when Alberta sees the most daylight hours, you will likely want to be on the Seasonal Solar rate throughout these months.

If you are new to the program, we suggest you regularly monitor your solar production and your total energy consumption to figure out when it makes sense for you to switch.

You can switch between rates once per month, and do so either online or by calling Enmax at 403-514-2700.

Image Credit: ENMAX Energy

Requirements

These are the requirements one must meet before signing up for Easymax Seasonal Solar.

• You must sign up for an Easymax electricity plan, or already be an Easymax customer.
• You are connected to the grid with a bi-directional residential meter.
• You must be a small solar micro-generator, with a total nameplate capacity of your micro-generation unit of less than 150kW.
• Your site has been activated by the distributor. You can verify the status by checking your microgeneration application with your installer.