FAQs & Troubleshooting

Solar panels are warrantied for 25 years and typically last 30–35 years and generate electricity in the form of direct current (DC). There is another piece of equipment needed for the installation called the inverter, included with the system. The inverter converts the electricity from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The inverter typically lasts 15–20 years so you may have to replace the inverter at some point during the life span of the solar panels.

System installation costs vary based on the size of your home and the solar contractor you choose to work with. The amount of energy produced is based on several factors like: tilt angle, orientation and shading conditions.

Our goal is to help provide you with information to help you make an informed decision on whether or not solar is a good option for your home and the next steps if you would like to move forward with a solar installation.

Your solar contractor is required by law to provide you the following to ensure you make an informed decision before purchasing solar power:

• Description of the system and including the system’s placement on your premises
• Nameplate capacity (kW) with expected monthly and annual output of the facility (kWh)
• Estimated annual loss of production from the facility as it ages
• Estimated timeline for installation
• Total cost of the facility
• Amount you must pay at signing of the agreement and at the completion of the installation
• Payment schedule
• Payback period
• Forecasted savings – monthly and annually – based on your current electric rates with fees.
• Description of any warranties with term length
• At least five (5) days to evaluate a net metering proposal before it can be binding.

If you believe your rights have been violated by a solar power contractor, please contact the Arkansas Attorney General at (501) 682-2007 or oag@ArkansasAG.gov.

When MISO orders a public appeal for conservation, we immediately ask customers to minimize energy usage as much as possible until the system strain has passed. You can help by:

• Increasing or decreasing your thermostat, depending on the weather. Even a few degrees can make a big difference.
• Unplugging electronic devices and turning off lights that are not in use.
• Holding off on doing chores. Delay laundry, washing dishes and other non-essential uses of electricity.

Conway Corp’s load curtailment plan was developed to comply with emergency constraints on generation resources on the transmission grid. Many of our large commercial accounts voluntarily curtail load during these events, but sometimes we are still required to shed additional load.

Voluntary actions by participating business and residential customers serve as a last line of defense before having to interrupt our service. Reduction in curtailable load or calls for conservation could avoid the need to shed load to a broader group of customers. Even if conditions continue to escalate after this step, it still helps reduce the overall quantity of megawatts required to be shed. This means fewer customers are potentially impacted for a shorter amount of time.

Street lights are a very small percentage of our electric demand and do not make up enough of the demand to conserve energy. We cannot remotely turn off street lights so it takes more time and effort than the amount of energy it could potentially save.

MISO is a not-for-profit, member-based organization that ensures reliable, cost-effective delivery of electricity across all or parts of 15 U.S. states and one Canadian province. It is one of the nation’s largest regional transmission organizations. In cooperation with stakeholders, MISO manages approximately 65,000 miles of high-voltage transmission and 200,000 megawatts of power-generating resources across its footprint.

Conway Corp entered the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market in December 2013 and is part of their southern region. Being a part of MISO allows Conway Corp to better coordinate and optimize generation and transmission for the benefit of Conway Corp customers.

We provide as much notice as possible to customers in advance of a load shed event. Unfortunately, we are not always afforded time to do that. Load shedding is time critical, and we must comply immediately. We do communicate to customers as soon as possible when we believe there could be conditions leading to load shed.

We are typically provided little notice and must comply with an order from MISO for shedding load to help prevent longer, widespread uncontrolled outages. Click here to learn more about MISO’s emergency messaging and the associated actions their members take.

Required outages during a load shed event limit power to some customers who are grouped together. Power in the group’s electricity conductors is turned on and off to their homes or businesses. We typically rotate the temporary outages until the load shed is complete to minimize the burden on any one group of customers.

The groups are determined by the amount of power – or megawatts – that must be shed at the time of the event and can vary greatly depending on the current conditions.

We do our best to avoid critical customers including essential public safety services, health facilities and water systems.

As one group of customers completes its outage cycle, the next group is removed from service and the first is returned to service. In most cases, customers will lose power for approximately 30 minutes.

Depending on the type of constraint and given impacts to the grid, either Conway Corp or MISO will initiate steps to shed load. For example, if MISO initiates, then Conway Corp must immediately begin shedding load under emergency conditions. This is a requirement to avoid catastrophic grid failures which could result in prolonged power outages.

This could happen at any time of the day or night, and we are given little warning time. It is only done in emergency situations as a last resort, but we must comply to prevent longer, widespread uncontrolled outages.