The IslandDER meter collar device from ConnectDER has been approved for use by Arizona’s three largest utilities: Arizona Public Service (APS), Tucson Electrical Power (TEP) and Salt River Project (SRP).
This announcement builds on existing Arizona support for ConnectDER’s devices, where the company’s Solar Meter Socket Adapter is already approved by all three utilities and Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC), with high usage from installers in the state. The company’s EV Meter Socket Adapter is currently cleared for use within APS and TEP service territory. IslandDER now brings additional benefits to installers as the state shifts to a storage-first model. These approvals streamline the installation process of distributed energy resources (DERs), enabling installers to cut costs and timelines.
ConnectDER’s plug-and-play meter socket adapters, or meter collars, simplify residential DER connections by plugging directly into the meter socket outside the home. This innovation bypasses the need for laborious main panel upgrades, full service replacements or circuit relocations — all of which lead to lost revenue and scheduling challenges for installers and increased costs for end customers. By eliminating these hurdles, crews can complete more jobs per week while homeowners save thousands in surprise electrical costs and drywall repairs with less disruption to their daily lives.
“Arizona has always been a solar leader, and the next frontier is storage,” said Ivo Steklac, ConnectDER President and CEO. “We commend the state, APS, SRP and TEP for their foresight in implementing battery-first rewards programs that maintain clean energy momentum even as the federal subsidy landscape shifts. Approval of our IslandDER adapter clears a path for residents to more easily access these incentives and secure energy independence. For our installer partners in the Southwest, IslandDER enables operational efficiency; we’re helping crews overcome hardware, labor and cost hurdles so they can focus on what they do best — deploying a resilient, storage-backed grid at scale.”
As the third-ranked state for residential solar capacity, Arizona is now leveraging its solar abundance to prioritize grid resilience, with recent battery attachment rates reaching an estimated 47%. This shift is driven in part by homeowners seeking financial stability against rising electricity rates, to optimize time-of-use (TOU) rate plans by pulling from their stored energy, and to participate in utility VPPs — such as APS’ Storage Rewards and TEP’s Energy Storage Rewards — which offer hundreds of dollars in annual electricity buy-backs.
For installers, however, Arizona homes present a distinct technical challenge: meter-main combination sockets that lack the space for essential system components required for storage and home backup power. ConnectDER’s IslandDER solves this by integrating a microgrid interconnect device (MID), current transformers (CTs), voltage sensing and communication protocols for real-time grid disconnect (“islanding”) into one singular, compact device. IslandDER handles complex meter-main combos in just 15 to 30 minutes without additional electrical work. It works with leading storage systems including FranklinWH, Lunar Energy, SolarEdge and EcoFlow, providing flexible choice to both installers and homeowners.
News item from ConnectDER
