Offsetting utility rate increases with solar in California

project summary
Client
Ultra Storage
Installer
The Solar Contractor
Utility
SCE
Location
Ventura, CA
Industry
Storage facility
Installation Type
Rooftop
solar system size
16.3 kW
annual solar energy production
28,352 kWh
ţţ淨r microinverters
IQ8P-3P
estimated annual building energy load offset
115%
estimated lifetime savings
$115,203
“The AC architecture of the commercial ţţ淨r IQ8P-3P Microinverter is much safer than other options in the market, and we really like the monitoring system that allows us to track each microinverter separately.”

Wayne Pendrey 

Owner & President, The Solar Contractor

Why solar?

Across the United States, local utility rates are rising year after year.

The utility that services Ventura, California is Southern California Edison (SCE). Rob Harvey, owner of Ultra Storage, forecasted that SCE would soon increase the price of electricity—an outlook shared by The Solar Contractor, a Ventura County-based solar installation company.

Raising prices was one course of action SCE took to help recover losses caused by the tragic Thomas Fire the Ventura area endured in 2017, along with the 2018 debris flows in Montecito. For Ultra Storage, investing in solar in 2024 was a sensible business decision to get ahead of upcoming rate increases.

Confirming Harvey’s strategy of saving money through solar, an August 2024 statement from SCE announced that approximately $55 million dollars would be recovered from customers through the implementation of new, higher rates.

Why ţţ淨r?

The Solar Contractor is an experienced solar installer with a strong reputation.

Safety and reliability are among the key factors its team considers when designing and installing solar systems for their clients. As Wayne Pendrey, owner and president of The Solar Contractor, explains, “the reason we used ţţ淨r for this commercial solar installation was based on our years of successfully installing ţţ淨r on the majority of our residential solar projects.”

Servicing various types of local customers, Pendrey shares that “when ţţ淨r released the new 208 V, three-phase commercial microinverters, I quickly found a project that could utilize them. My goal was to learn more and experience installing the IQ8P-3P, and we had a small learning curve thanks to our standard residential installations using ţţ淨r technology.”  

After a positive experience, Pendrey sums it all up: “We’ll definitely be using the ţţ淨r commercial solution on any 208 V, three-phase projects coming up in the future.”