Heartland has issued a moratorium on new member-owned solar and wind interconnections for members served by our Devon, Greenbush and Urbana substations. Click here to learn more.
Thinking about Solar or Wind Power?
Contact Us Before You Talk to an Installer!If you’re considering installing solar panels, wind turbines, or another renewable energy source at your home or business, please contact Heartland REC first—before signing any contracts with an installer.
This is crucial because:
- Your system must be sized appropriately for your electric use.
- We need to ensure it can connect safely to our lines.
Why We Need to Be Involved
As a rural electric cooperative, we have fewer members per mile of line than most utilities. That means every connection to our system matters.
By working with us up front:
- We can prevent “overgeneration” (too much power flowing back onto the grid at the wrong times).
- We can ensure your installer follows our interconnection standards to help protect the safety of our linemen.
- We can guide you on rate options so you understand how credits or payouts will work on your bill.
Our Process
- If you are thinking about installing solar or wind generation at your home or business, contact us first using this quick form BEFORE signing a contract with an installer
- We will use a formula to determine your maximum allowable system size based on your past usage and grid conditions in your area
- We will provide information about our parallel generation rate options
- If you decide to pursue installing a DG system, you will select a vendor and provide them with your Heartland-approved system size
- You will work with your vendor to complete our required interconnection agreement forms and pay any applicable interconnection fees
- We will work with you and your vendor to ensure proper interconnection
Frequently Asked Questions
Heartland uses the formula for "appropriately sized" found in Kansas law and shown below.
When plugging in your annual kWh used, we look at your actual electric use over the past 12 months. If you’re new, we estimate based on the square footage of conditioned space (7.15 kWh per square foot per year).
For existing locations:
For new locations:
The result, rounded up, is the maximum system size we can approve for export.
If you’re under Parallel Generation (the only option for new connections as of Sept. 1, 2025):
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Extra kWh you send back are credited at 100% of our avoided cost (what we would have paid to buy that power wholesale).
- Our avoided cost has typically been around 2.5¢/kWh; we can provide up-to-date numbers upon request.
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Credits appear on your bill; we don’t cut separate checks.
If you were already on Net Metering before Sept. 1, 2025:
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You stay on that rate until Sept. 1, 2030.
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Your extra kWh are credited at full retail rate (like rolling your meter backward).
- You can zero out your Energy Charge and Peak Charge each month, but you cannot carry credits from month to month, and you will still have a Service Availability Charge.
Similar to a whole-house generator, a battery storage system can be installed by a member on their side of the meter. Like a generator, a battery storage system must be installed with proper disconnections to ensure that power is not backfed onto Heartland’s system during a power outage.
Storing power for later use is helpful for many reasons. Energy storage can help members use less power during those times of day when power is expensive. Members who add battery storage to a solar array installation reduce the need for the cooperative to serve as a virtual battery. And many battery storage systems can provide power during an outage.
We have found that many of our members who have installed wind and solar systems want to know exactly how much power their equipment is producing. A second meter monitoring the wind or solar array will help you know how much power is being produced by your system and help Heartland with future planning for future electric system infrastructure upgrades.
Not unless it is paired with a dedicated battery storage system. Member solar arrays that are interconnected into Heartland’s grid are designed to automatically stop producing power during an outage. This is necessary to prevent backfeeds and ensure the safety of our line workers working to restore power during an outage.
Every electric provider is different. Heartland’s service area is almost entirely rural, with very few members per mile of line. That makes our issues unique when compared to most power providers. Solar typically produces the most energy during the middle of the day, when demand is low, and tapers off in the evening, when the demand is high. When distributed generation systems overproduce during the day, we have nowhere to send that extra electricity. We cannot push it back onto the transmission grid for contractual, cost, and safety reasons.