Export compensation
Export compensation is the rule that prices the solar power your home does not use at the moment it is made. On a typical grid-tied system a large share of daytime production flows back to the grid, so the value the utility assigns to that energy is often the single biggest swing factor between a ten-year and a twenty-year payback. Two homes with identical roofs and identical quotes can land years apart for this reason alone.
The rules come in a few families. Classic net metering credits exports at or near the retail rate. Net billing credits them at a lower export value, sometimes set hour by hour. Buyback plans pay a rate written into a retail electricity plan, which is how exports are paid in parts of Texas with retail choice. Some co-ops and municipal utilities sit outside the state rules entirely. The explainer on this hub walks through each family, and the state deep dives cover places where the mechanics are genuinely distinct, starting with California's Net Billing Tariff.
This hub covers solar export rules only. Retail electricity rates, time-of-use rate design and wider utility context belong to EnergyBS, and pages here link there for that context. Every export figure on these pages is tied to a commission decision or a published tariff with a checked date; when a value cannot be verified at the source, the page links to the source instead of printing a number.
Every guide in this section
Net metering and net billing: what your exported power is worth
Net metering decides what your exported power is worth, and lately the answer is less than it used to be. How retail credit, net billing, and buyback plans change the math.
California's Net Billing Tariff (NEM 3.0): export values, the nine-year lock and battery math
How California's Net Billing Tariff prices solar exports for PG&E, SCE and SDG&E customers, what the nine-year lock covers, and the self-consumption and battery arithmetic that decides payback.
Will adding panels, a battery or a new owner cost you your grandfathered net metering?
Adding a battery usually leaves legacy net metering alone, while adding more than a small slice of panels can move the whole system to a lower export rate. What the tariff text says in California, Idaho and Illinois.
What is a solar true-up bill, and how much should you set aside for it?
How the annual solar true-up settles at PG&E, SCE, SDG&E and Xcel, what export credits cannot offset, and a month-by-month set-aside worksheet.
How much solar output lands in a time-of-use peak? Six utilities' peak hours, checked hour by hour
An NLR PVWatts hourly run set against the peak windows printed by PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, APS, Con Edison and Xcel Colorado: how much of a solar array's output each window actually catches, why daylight saving time doubles the answer, and how to run the check for your own roof.
Can you install solar without net metering? Non-export rules, approvals and the self-use math
A home solar system can connect with no export tariff at all if it never sends power past the meter, but utilities still review it. Here are the non-export rules in California, New York, Minnesota and Hawaii, the notification-only claim checked against PG&E's forms, and the self-use arithmetic worked on an 8 kW array.
Utah's solar export credit in 2026: 4.855 and 4.033 cents, the March reset, and an 8 kW bill month by month
Rocky Mountain Power pays 4.855 cents per exported kWh in summer and 4.033 in winter since March 1, 2026. Annual rate history, credit expiry at the March reading, the 25 kW limit, review fees and a worked 8 kW bill.
How to choose between these export guides
Start with the question your quote forces. If you do not yet know which rule family applies to you, read the net metering explainer. If you live in California, the net billing guide works through the current tariff. If you already have a system and are thinking of adding panels or a battery, or selling the house, the grandfathering guide tells you which changes can cost you your existing terms. Whichever you open first, hold your own tariff next to it, because the commission decision and the utility tariff outrank any summary.
California shows how much a rule change moves the numbers, and it is the best documented case. The California Public Utilities Commission adopted its net billing tariff in Decision 22-12-056 on December 15, 2022. The CPUC states that applications submitted by April 14, 2023 are not affected, and that the new tariff applies to applications on or after April 15, 2023 (cpuc.ca.gov NEM Revisit page, checked October 22, 2026). Under the decision, export rates are hourly avoided cost values, annual true-up replaces monthly netting, and customers in the first five years receive a nine-year schedule of values fixed at interconnection. Those three features, hourly pricing, annual settlement and a lock period, are what to look for in any other state's rule.
Rate levels and time-of-use design are not covered on this site. EnergyBS publishes that material, including a time-of-use rate strategy guide, and the guides here link to it where the rate plan changes the answer. What this section can do is show how a given export rule moves payback once you have your tariff in hand.
| Situation | What you need to know | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping for a first system | Which of the four rule families applies and how it values exports | Net metering explained |
| California, new application | How the net billing tariff values exports and when the lock applies | California net billing guide |
| Existing system, planning changes or a sale | Which changes keep or end your current terms | Net metering grandfathering |
| Adding a battery to an exporting system | How storage changes both the tariff and the permit | Add a battery to existing solar |