Tired of Cherryville Electric bills? Here are your solar and backup options

Cherryville runs its own power

The City of Cherryville in western Gaston County is a public power community. The city distributes electricity to customers in its service area and its council sets the rates. Homes outside the city territory are served by other utilities, so check your bill to confirm who your provider is.

Behind the scenes, Cherryville is one of 19 members of North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1. The agency owns most of Unit 2 at the Catawba Nuclear Station and supplies member towns with wholesale power. ElectriCities manages the agency and gives member towns shared help with rates, line work training, safety and mutual aid after storms.

Solar rules in Cherryville

Cherryville's solar terms were not posted where we could verify them, so call the electric department early. Across ElectriCities towns the usual pattern is an interconnection application, a signed interconnection agreement, often a power purchase agreement, a second meter and a final inspection. Most nearby towns credit solar output at the utility's avoided cost rather than the full retail rate. That changes the payback math a lot, so get the exact rule in writing from Cherryville before you compare quotes.

Many Cherryville homes are on open lots with good southern exposure, which helps. Older roofs are the more common snag. If the shingles are near the end of their life, plan the reroof before the panels go up.

Outages and backup

ElectriCities reports that public power customers in North Carolina average fewer outages per year and fewer minutes without power than co-op and investor-owned customers. That is a statewide average, though. A tree on a line, a car into a pole or a problem on the transmission side can still leave your street dark, and an average does not keep a freezer cold.

If backup power is the goal, plan for a battery or a standby generator. Grid-tied solar stops producing during an outage unless it is paired with equipment built to island safely. Ask the contractor to size backup around the loads you cannot do without, such as heat, the fridge, a sump or well pump, and to confirm the layout with Cherryville Electric before anything is installed.

Start with a $349 home energy evaluation

Getting a solar contractor out to Cherryville can take a while. Booking a paid evaluation on HomeBackupPros changes that. For $349 a contractor does an electric audit, reviews your energy use and writes up a quote for a system that fits Cherryville Electric's rules. If you buy from that same contractor, the $349 is credited toward the system.

Have your kWh by month handy from your Cherryville Electric bills, and note what runs on electric versus gas or propane. Every contractor on HomeBackupPros is reviewed and approved by our team, and we check their NC electrical contractor license. Contractors are independent businesses and HomeBackupPros does not install anything. Some contractors also offer a free site visit or an estimate, and the choice is yours.