La Plata Electric Association - Renewable Generation Rebate Program

La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) offers an incentive, not to exceed the cost of the system, to residential and small commercial customers who install a photovoltaic (PV), wind, or hydropower facility. To be eligible for the rebate, the system must be grid-tied and located in LPEA's service territory. Systems 10 kilowatts (kW) or less are eligible for an upfront incentive based on the nameplate capacity and other factors. Systems greater than 10 kW are eligible for a performance-based incentive.

Payments are made every 6 months for the first 10 years of operation.

Customers interested in installing wind or hydro systems should contact the utility to find out the rebate amount.

For the purposes of calculating the upfront incentive, the wattage of the system is determined as follows:

• Solar – the total installed PV panel capacity
• Solar with tracking – the total installed PV panel capacity times 1.25. This factor represents the additional energy output obtained by the use of a tracking device.
• Wind – the nameplate capacity times 0.30. This factor represents the expected energy output given the wind resources of LPEA service territory. If 12 months of hourly, site specific anemometer data can be provided, this factor may be adjusted to represent the site’s wind resource.
• Hydro – available head (in feet) times average annual flow rate (in cfs) times 84.64 (power conversion factor).