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What is the EcoVolt Utility Price Index?

 

EcoVolt Finance LLC and its affiliated companies (collectively, “EcoVolt”) use an index to adjust the fees charged for EcoVolt’s solar panel systems installed on commercial and residential properties. There is a unique index used for residential customers and for commercial customers within each local utility area where EcoVolt operates (each called, a “Local Index”). The specific EcoVolt Utility Price Index which applies to a specific customer is described in that customer’s Rooftop Income Agreement (“RIA”). 

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How is the EcoVolt Utility Price Index used?

 

EcoVolt’s solar customers pay electricity fees each month for the solar electricity harvested from the panels EcoVolt installs. Every year, the fees charged to that customer will change based on changes in the EcoVolt Utility Price Index. The details of how this work for any specific customer is described in that customer’s Rooftop Income Agreement. 

 

Does the EcoVolt Utility Price Index measure the price changes I would experience if I bought all my power from my local utility?

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Not necessarily. Your Power Price for electricity is set at an initial price by your Rooftop Income Agreement (“RIA”). That initial price is adjusted upward or downward each year based on the Local Index to which your RIA refers. That Local Index, in turn, has been based on an assumed electricity load and rate tariff for the local utility referenced in your RIA. However, your property may:

  1. Use more or less electricity than the amount of electricity upon which the Local Index was based;

  2. Have a different time-of-use pattern each day than was utilized to create the Local Index;

  3. Change its volume of electricity demand from month-to-month rather than staying constant;

  4. Experience a change in your volumetric price per kWh as a result of this RIA rather than staying constant; (v) be based on a different rate tariff than the assumptions utilized to create the Local Index; and/or

  5. Differ in other ways from the assumptions underlying the Local Index. Thus, the Local Index should be considered as an approximation for the rate of change you might have experienced if you bought all your power from your local utility.

 

By signing the RIA, you represent that you understand and agree that:

  1. The price per-kWh charged to you under the RIA will vary annually; and

  2. Your combined costs for the RIA and your remaining utility bill will not perfectly track whatever utility rates you might otherwise experience without the RIA. 

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How are taxes treated in the EcoVolt Utility Price Index?

 

The EcoVolt Utility Price Index is based on pre-tax utility rates. Taxes are not included in computing any Local Index. 

 

How do I read or interpret an index?

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An index is a tool that simplifies the measurement of movements in a numerical series. Most of the specific EcoVolt Utility Price Indexes have a 2006 reference base. That is, EcoVolt sets the average index level (representing the average utility price level) in 2006 equal to 100. EcoVolt then measures changes in relation to that figure. An index of 110, for example, means there has been a 10-percent increase in price since the reference period; similarly, an index of 90 means a 10-percent decrease. Movements of the index from one date to another can be expressed as changes in index points (simply, the difference between index levels), but it is more useful to express the movements as percent changes. This is because index points are affected by the level of the index in relation to its reference period, while percent changes are not. 

In the table that follows, Item A increased by half as many index points as Item B between Year I and Year II. Yet, because of different starting indexes, both items had the same percent change; that is, prices advanced at the same rate. By contrast, Items B and C show the same change in index points, but the percent change is greater for Item C because of its lower starting index value. 

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What Local Indexes are published and how often?

 

EcoVolt publishes Local Indexes for all the locations in which it operates. These Local Indexes are updated once per-year. On the date when a Rooftop Income Agreement adjusts its price, the then-current Local Index referenced in the agreement is used. So for instance, if a specific EcoVolt Utility Price Index changes on July 1st every year, then that changed index value will be used to adjust RIA pricing from July 1st through June 30th of the following year. And if a specific EcoVolt Utility Price Index changes on January 1st every year, then that changed index value will be used to adjust RIA pricing from January 1st through December 31st of the following year. 
 

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