Why Your Utility's Export Rate Now Decides Solar Payback

• Net metering: exports offset what you buy at the full retail price. Florida's investor-owned utilities and New York's utilities work this way, as does LADWP in Los Angeles.
• Net billing: exports earn a separate, lower rate. Arizona's APS currently locks new customers in at 5.55¢ per kWh^[1]; TEP at 4.62¢ per kWh^[2]; SRP pays 1.87¢ per kWh^[3]. Sacramento's SMUD pays 9.60¢ per kWh^[4].
• Retail choice: in Houston and Dallas, your retail electricity plan decides whether you are paid for exports at all.

Under net billing, energy you use as it is produced is worth your full retail price, while exported energy earns a fraction of it. That means:

1. Size to your daytime use, not to your yearly total.
2. Move flexible loads into sunny hours: laundry, dishwashers, pool pumps, EV charging and pre-cooling.
3. Consider a battery where evening prices are high or exports earn little.

Under net metering the opposite holds: the grid acts like a free battery, and sizing to your yearly use is usually best.

Our net metering pages list each utility's current rules from its tariff, and the calculator uses your utility's export rate by default. When comparing installer quotes, ask which export rate and how much on-site use they assumed.