MA SMART, Massachusetts' Incentive Program, is a performance-based incentive that pays by kWh.

Sighten EverBright takes into consideration the different utility territories for calculating incentives for MA SMART. They are:

• National Grid (Nantucket),

• Eversource MA EAST,

• National Grid (MECO),

• Eversource MA West, and

• Unitil

MA SMART has categorized projects based on system size. The system makes use of "Blocks" to calculate incentives.

How does

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EverBright calculate the MA SMART PBI?

Sighten EverBright takes the base compensation rate and subtracts the value of energy for a specific utility rate schedule to receive the solar incentive payment.  We receive the values directly from the MA SMART program. More information can be found here.

What are Blocks and how does this work?

The rate calculations are determined by what MA SMART calls "Blocks". Each Utility Territory is given up to 8 Blocks, and each block has a corresponding Total Allocated Capacity and pay rate, wherein Block 1 has the highest rate per kWh. This pay rate goes significantly lower as the Block number ascends. Thus, Block 1 has the highest pay rate, and Block 8 will have the lowest.

How does a territory move from Block 1 to Block 2, and so on?

Once the block's Total Allocated Capacity is met based on the incentive applications a utility territory receives, the said block for which the utility provider accepts applications for at present will then be closed. Then, applications for the next block will commence, which will have a lower pay rate compared to the previous block.

Here are how many blocks are accepted per territory, and which block they are accepting applications for at the moment:

• Eversource MA EAST is now accepting applications for Block 6, and is given a total of 16 Blocks

• Eversource MA West is now accepting applications for Block 9 and is given a total of 8 Blocks

• National Grid (MECO) is now accepting applications for Block 10 and is given a total of 16 Blocks

• National Grid (Nantucket) is now accepting applications for Block 2, and is given a total of 4 Blocks

• Unitil is accepting applications for Block 5, and is given a total of 8 Blocks

Here are the base compensation rates for the Utility Territories based on their corresponding Blocks as stated above for systems under 25 kW AC:

• Eversource MA EAST = Block 6 of 8 = $$0.27723/kWh over 10 years

• Eversource MA West = Block 9 of 8 = $$0.21044/kWh over 10 years

• National Grid (MECO) = Block 10 of 16 = $$0.22463/kWh over 10 years

• National Grid (Nantucket)= Block 2 of 4= $$0.28560/kWh over 10 years

• Unitil = Block 5 of 8= $$0.22619/kWh over 10 years

MA SMART is also available for systems over 25 kW AC. Please note, for some utilities MA SMART is no longer available. 

• Eversource MA EAST = Block 6 of 8 over a period of 20 years

• Eversource MA West = Block 9 of 16 over a period of 20 years

• National Grid (MECO) = Block 9 of 16 over a period 20 years

• National Grid (Nantucket)= Block 3 of 4 over a period 20 years

• Unitil = Block 6 of 8 over a period 20 years

Case in point, let's take National Grid (Nantucket) as an example. It is accepting applications for Block 1 at the moment. Block 1 for National Grid (Nantucket) pays $0.14058/kWh. Once the Total Allocated Capacity is met for this Block, they will close applications for Block 1 and start receiving applications for Block 2. Pay rates will then need to be updated to match the new pay rate for the Utility Territory's new Block.

How does storage impact the PBI?

The SMART program also has a special adder for qualifying solar projects that include storage. The adder rate is added to the Base Compensation Rate to determine the Total Compensation Rate ($/kWh). The storage adder rate is calculated taking into account the Storage Nominal Rated Power Capacity, Solar PV Capacity (kW DC), Storage Hours at Rated Capacity, and a calculated adder multiplier, which is based on a storage adder tranche. The current tranche for all utilities is 10.

Still have questions? Contact support@sightensupport@goeverbright.iocom or start a chat with us when you are logged into the platform.