The Customer Benefit Contribution is a monthly charge that New York's investor-owned utilities and PSEG Long Island apply to solar customers interconnected in recent years under Phase One net metering. It is billed per kilowatt of solar capacity, so a larger system pays more, and it funds public-benefit programs that net-metered customers otherwise avoid paying through their reduced energy purchases. Utilities publish the rate each year, and solar export credits cannot be used to pay it. The charge is small relative to the savings from retail-rate net metering, but it should be in any honest payback estimate. Our calculator adds it for New York utilities using each utility's published rate.
Related terms and pages
- Net metering: Billing in which solar power you export offsets power you buy, kWh for kWh, at the retail price.
- Payback period: The number of years until a solar system's savings equal what you paid for it.
- New York net metering and CBC rates