Net Metering in 2026: Export Credits Explained

What the meter is doing

The house uses solar first. Surplus can flow out. Shortfalls flow in. The tariff decides what the outflow is worth.

On a sunny afternoon a house may make more than it is using. That surplus goes onto the utility's wires if the system is grid-tied. At night the house buys power back. Over a month the bill reflects both directions, plus customer charges that often do not shrink.

Classic net metering treats the exported kilowatt-hour as a credit equal to a purchased kilowatt-hour, sometimes with a monthly or annual true-up. It is simple, and it is no longer the rule everywhere. Successors include net billing, avoided-cost exports, and time-varying export rates. The name on the tariff matters more than the word the salesperson used.

Instantaneous self-consumption is worth the retail rate you avoided, almost by definition, before you count fixed charges. Exports are worth whatever the tariff says. A design that pushes a lot of energy out at noon, in a place that pays very little at noon, will not match a chart drawn as if every kilowatt-hour were retail.

Why the rules got less generous in some states

Utilities and regulators argued that full retail credit shifted grid costs onto other customers. Whether you find that convincing, the tariffs moved.

California is the clearest example. New interconnections after the NEM 2.0 sunset moved to a net billing tariff, often called NEM 3.0, with export compensation tied to avoided cost and the hour. Exports are often worth much less than the retail rate. Exact values depend on the utility and the time. Read the current schedule rather than a 2019 blog post.

In the states our installer partners serve, the rules are not one rule. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, and Virginia each have their own net-metering tariff, and several also have a market for solar renewable energy credits whose price moves. Illinois new residential customers of ComEd and Ameren are on supply-only net metering, and Illinois Shines is a separate credit contract. Michigan's newer DTE and Consumers Energy projects are generally on an inflow/outflow tariff. Connecticut's new residential projects at Eversource and United Illuminating use the Residential Renewable Energy Solutions tariffs, which replaced legacy net metering. California's new interconnections use net billing. Florida and Texas depend on the utility or the retail plan. City pages name the utility. None of those pages promise a credit.

We do not print a table of export rates and pretend it is current. Those numbers move. A useful installer visit puts the tariff name, the export price, and an example bill side by side. If they cannot, they are not ready to talk about savings.

Why our estimate still uses the state average price

The dollar range is a share of your bill, valued as if offset energy were worth the EIA state average. That assumption is printed next to the number.

Using one public price keeps the math checkable. EIA Table 2.10 is an annual average, not your tariff. If your exports are paid below that average, treat our high end as optimistic. If you use almost all of the solar inside the house, the assumption matters less, because avoided purchases really are retail.

Sun hours change the illustrated system size, not that dollar share. A sunnier city does not automatically 'save more' on the same bill in our model. It may need a smaller system to cover the same usage. Cost per watt then decides whether the smaller system is the better buy. Our page does not know the cost. Solar panel cost separates those ideas on purpose.

Bring this skepticism to the proposal. Ask which hours are self-consumed and which are exported, and what price was used for each. A single blended 'savings' rate is how a chart gets ahead of the tariff.

Time-of-use rates and fixed charges

When you buy power can matter as much as how many kilowatt-hours you buy.

Time-of-use rates charge more on late afternoons and evenings. Solar makes most of its energy earlier. A west-facing array or a battery can move more of the value into the expensive hours. An east-facing array may do the opposite. Orientation is a design choice once you know the rate, not a moral preference for south.

Customer charges and minimum bills stay even when usage falls. A household with a low energy charge and a high fixed charge has less bill to offset. That is common on some discounted or all-electric rates and on some solar-specific successors. Look at the fixed line on two months of bills before you get excited about a percentage.

Demand charges, more common for larger homes and for some Arizona and commercial rates, bill you for the highest short spike. Solar may not cut a spike that happens after sunset. A battery sometimes can. Sometimes is not a design.

What to ask before you believe a savings chart

Get the tariff name, the export price, and a sample bill in writing.

Ask the installer to name the rate schedule and the export rider, and to show where those documents live on the utility site. Ask whether credits expire monthly or annually, and whether they are paid in cash or only as a bill credit. Ask what happens if you add an electric vehicle or switch the rate later.

Ask us, if you request a call, to say plainly that American Solar Savings does not represent the utility. We can introduce an installer. We cannot promise a credit rate. Choosing an installer is the longer list of questions.