What is a Standard Offer Contract (SOC)?
Ontario is the first Province in Canada to offer a feed-in-tariff program, based on a highly successful German policy model. This is a 20 year contract issued by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and administered by local utilities which allows solar electricity generators an opportunity to sell power back to the grid. The contract rate is valued at approximately 5 times more than the rate paid by consumers in Ontario at 42 cents per kWh. SOC’s provide consumers an opportunity to be paid a premium for the clean power that is generated at peak hours. Solar producers also have a more secure financial investment term that assists them to project the returns of their system over time. The SOC program is currently under review. For more information: http://www.powerauthority.on.ca/sop/ For customers of Hydro One refer to (also net metering): http://www.hydroone.com/en/electricity_industry/renewable_tech/default.
