Net Metering / Net Billing
If you install a solar PV, small wind, hydroelectric, biomass, or biogas system up to 30 kW, your Kentucky utility must let you send excess power back to the grid and receive bill credits. Rural electric cooperative customers get monthly net metering with excess kWh rolling over to the next bill, and you keep ownership of your Renewable Energy Credits. Customers of investor-owned utilities are now transitioning to net billing, where exports are credited at a utility-specific rate, but if you were already enrolled under net metering you are grandfathered for 25 years.
Systems up to 30 kW using solar, wind, hydro, biomass, or biogas qualify, and Kentucky requires a single bi-directional meter, with any extra meters or distribution upgrades installed at the customer's expense. Interconnection and net metering must follow the PSC guidelines issued January 8, 2009, so confirm each utility's tariff before installing. Note the important distinction for customers: co-ops (excluding TVA utilities) still use monthly net metering with kWh rollover, while IOUs have shifted to net billing with instantaneous netting and utility-specific export credits.
Established by 2008 legislation (30 kW cap; PSC guidelines 1/8/2009) and modified by 2019's S.B. 100, which authorized IOUs to transition from net metering to net billing during their rate cases, with pre-transition customers grandfathered for 25 years. Co-op customers (except TVA utilities) net production and consumption monthly with kWh rollover; IOU net billing nets instantaneously and credits exports at a utility-specific rate that offsets only per-kWh charges, carrying excess credits forward. The PSC may limit a utility's obligation once net-metered capacity reaches 1.0% of its prior-year single-hour peak load; eligible sectors span residential, commercial, agricultural, institutional, nonprofit, schools, and government.
Program details
- Program ID
- 1081
- Last updated
- 3/3/2026
Eligibility
- Sectors
- commercial local government nonprofit residential schools state government agricultural institutional
- Technologies
- solar photovoltaics wind (all) biomass hydroelectric wind (small) hydroelectric (small)
Program summary
In April 2008, Kentucky enacted legislation that expanded its net metering law by requiring utilities to offer net metering to customers that generate electricity with photovoltaic (PV), wind, biomass, biogas or hydroelectric systems up to 30 kilowatts (kW) in capacity. The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) issued rules on January 8, 2009. Utilities had 90 days from that date to file tariffs that include all terms and conditions of their net metering programs, including interconnection. Kentucky enacted legislation again in 2019 (S.B. 100), which began the transition from net metering to et billing for the investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Each IOU then triggered their own transition during the next rate case. Customers taking service under previous net metering rules (including customers that begin service before the new crediting rules for each utility are developed) will be grandfathered in for 25 years.
Electric Cooperative Except for TVA Distribution Utilities
Net metering is available to all customers of rural electric cooperatives, exempting TVA utilities. Production and consumption are netted on a monthly basis and any excess production during a month rolls over to the customers next monthly bill as a kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit. Kentucky requires the use of a single, bi-directional meter for net metering. Any additional meter, meters or distribution upgrades needed to monitor electricity flow in each direction will be installed at the customer's expense. The customer retains ownership of any Renewable Energy Credits.
If the cumulative generating capacity of net-metered systems reaches 1.0% of a utility's single-hour peak load during the previous year, the PSC may limit the utility's obligation to offer net metering. When time-of-day or time-of-use metering is used, the electricity fed back to the grid by customers is net-metered and accounted for at the specific time it is fed back to the grid in accordance with the time-of-day or time-of-use billing agreement currently in place.
IOUs
In the 2019 legislative session, Kentucky passed a bill (S.B. 100) which made several changes to net metering. Most significantly, the bill allowed the IOUs to transition to net billing. Under the new net billing rules, production and consumption are netted instantaneously and any excess kWh's exported to the grid are credited at a utility-specific rate. Bill credits for net exports can only offset per-kWh electricity charges. Any excess bill credits are carried forward to the next billing period.
Contact & resources
- Contact email
- solar@a-spi.org
- Additional resources
Please verify current program details with the administering agency before making any financial decisions.
