Information for Utility Customers about Solar

How does rooftop solar work?

Solar panels create electricity from sunlight. This electricity is converted from direct to alternating current by an inverter in your house, and then is used for your home electricity needs. If you need more electricity than your panels generate, you'll automatically get metered electricity from DPU’s distribution system in the same way you did before you had solar panels. If your solar panels generate more electricity than your house can immediately use, that electricity will go through an export meter to the Los Alamos County distribution system, where it can be considered “sold” to DPU. 

Solar connection power flow scenarios(PDF, 1MB)

Proposed rule change regarding rooftop solar

The Board of Public Utilities considered a change to Rule E-5 at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 17. Board members considered the proposed rule changes and input from the public specific to subsection E-5.05 before sending the proposal back to the department for further research and refinement. The proposed rule change can be found here(PDF, 149KB) , with the current rule here(PDF, 159KB) . Video of the meeting can be found here; this topic starts at 51:30.

The public asked many questions during the BPU meeting. DPU has compiled a list of these questions with answers, which can be found at the link below. 

This topic will be revisited at the BPU meeting on May 15 at 5:30 p.m. Due to election activity in Council Chambers, this meeting will be held in the planetarium at the Los Alamos Nature Center at 2600 Canyon Road. All BPU meetings are held in a hybrid fashion. The Zoom link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88515885437.

Solar Q&A(PDF, 2MB)

(JPG, 140KB)

I am interested in installing solar panels. Where should I start?

Please visit the County's Solar Power Installation web page at ladpu.com/solar .