Solar buyback and net metering in Texas

Does Texas have net metering?

Texas does not have one statewide net-metering requirement. In the competitive parts of Texas, you import electricity from a retail provider and may sell solar exports to that provider at a value you both agree to. Elsewhere, the serving utility or cooperative applies the solar tariff and rules for its territory.

That is the practical answer to “does Texas have net metering?”: many Texans can receive credit for exported solar, but the amount and billing method depend on the address and agreement.

In competitive areas, the meter records imports and exports separately. The bill charges for imports, and the buyback agreement sets the export credit. A home can export one kWh at noon and import one after sunset without those two kWh having the same price.

Who buys excess solar power in Texas?

In a competitive retail area, the retail electric provider serving the home buys the export under the agreement. The local transmission and distribution utility, or TDU, owns the poles, wires, and meter. It approves interconnection, measures electricity flowing both ways, and sends those readings into the retail market, but it does not set the household’s retail buyback offer.

In an area without retail choice, the serving municipal utility, electric cooperative, or vertically integrated utility usually handles both sides of the relationship. Its tariff or solar program determines how exports are measured and credited. You generally cannot replace that program by choosing a retail provider.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas’s distributed renewable generation rule states that, in customer-choice areas, owners who choose to sell outflow sell it to the retail provider serving the premises “at a value to which both parties agree.” The metering rule requires qualifying metering to separately measure consumption from the grid and outflow delivered to it.

If you are unsure which system serves an address, start with the company named as the utility or delivery company on the bill. The Texas deregulated-areas guide explains where retail choice exists, and the ESI ID lookup can identify many competitive-market premises from an address.

Where does each solar kWh go?

A solar kWh has only two immediate destinations: the home uses it behind the meter, or it crosses the meter as an export. Production, home use, imports, and exports are different measurements.

The solar app reports production. Self-consumption is the part used inside the home at that moment; it never reaches the utility meter. The meter records only electricity crossing the grid boundary: exports when solar exceeds immediate demand and battery charging, and imports when home demand exceeds current solar and battery output.

Without a battery, the basic ledger is:

Solar production = self-consumed solar + exports
Home electricity use = self-consumed solar + imports

This is why an installer’s estimate of annual solar production cannot predict a buyback credit by itself. A 10,000 kWh system might export very different amounts at a home with daytime air-conditioning, at an empty weekday home, and at a home charging a battery. The timing of production and use decides the split.

Self-consumption often has the highest immediate bill value because it can avoid both the provider’s marginal energy charge and the utility’s per-kWh delivery charge on an import. An export usually earns the separate buyback value and does not erase delivery charges already incurred on electricity imported at another time. Fixed monthly charges remain either way.

How do solar buyback plans work?

A buyback plan is one import contract plus one export agreement. The import side determines what you pay for grid electricity. The export side determines what the provider credits when surplus solar crosses the meter. Credit restrictions connect the two.

The simplest useful bill model is:

Bill = import charges + fixed charges − eligible export credits

Each term needs to be expanded before the formula is trustworthy:

• Import charges can include the provider’s energy charge, utility delivery charges, time-of-use prices, and usage-based credits or fees.
• Fixed charges can include monthly provider and utility charges that solar production does not eliminate.
• Export credits depend on exported kWh, the rate or market-price formula, and the times at which exports occurred.
• Eligible means the credit may offset only certain charges. A plan may stop crediting after a monthly cap, carry a balance forward, or leave fixed charges due.

A fixed export rate is easy to model if it stays fixed for the contract. A wholesale-linked plan requires interval data: each export interval must be matched to the market price named in the agreement. Multiplying annual exports by today’s wholesale price, a simple annual average, or the highest afternoon price does not reproduce the plan.

ERCOT publishes real-time settlement point prices, but the retail agreement still controls which price series, load zone, settlement interval, adjustments, cap, or floor the provider uses. A wholesale price is normally quoted in dollars per megawatt-hour; divide by 1,000 to convert it to dollars per kWh. For example, $30/MWh equals 3¢/kWh.

Why are import and export prices different?

The import price and export credit pay for different things. Your import bill covers electricity supplied by the provider, regulated delivery service, and any fixed or conditional plan charges. The export agreement assigns a value to surplus electricity sent to the grid.

Texas does not require those prices to match. A plan with a higher export credit can also have a higher import price or monthly fee, which is why both sides belong in the same annual comparison.

What should you check before and after enrolling?

Read the EFL, Terms of Service, Your Rights as a Customer document, and the complete solar agreement for the exact offer. Marketing summaries are useful for discovery; the contract documents control the bill.

Pay particular attention to:

• Different terms. The import price can be fixed while the export rate follows a separate schedule. Know which document controls if descriptions conflict.
• Credit boundaries. Check caps, eligible bill lines, rollover, expiration, and what happens at renewal, a move, or account closure.
• System and battery limits. Eligibility can depend on rated capacity, historical consumption, net-export status, equipment, or the source of battery exports.
• Wholesale-linked details. If applicable, confirm the settlement point, interval, adjustments, negative-price treatment, floor, and ceiling.

For a new system, the installer normally starts the local utility’s interconnection process. The exact documents and timing vary by utility. Do not energize a grid-connected system before receiving permission to operate, or PTO, and do not assume the retail buyback agreement automatically completes utility interconnection.

For an existing system, confirm that changing providers will preserve the meter’s distributed-generation status and that the new provider has the correct ESI ID, system details, and effective date. Save the plan documents as they existed when you enrolled; similarly named offers can change.

Do not expect exports or credits to appear immediately after PTO. The remaining work can include configuring the meter and updating the premise’s market profile so outflow data reaches the retail provider. Timelines vary by utility. Oncor currently says meter reprogramming generally takes about three weeks, followed by a load-profile update requiring one full billing cycle—30 to 60 days from reprogramming. Confirm the process with your own utility rather than applying Oncor’s timeline statewide.

On the first complete bill, meter exports, the buyback formula, and the credit line should reconcile for the same service dates. If portal exports are missing from the bill, confirm the agreement’s effective date and outflow profile. If both show zero, confirm the utility completed meter configuration after PTO. Keep the PTO letter, provider confirmation, meter data, and bill; repeat the check at renewal or after equipment and rate changes. The high-bill guide can help separate a production, usage, price, or billing change.

How do you compare solar buyback plans?

Use the same twelve months of imports and exports for every plan, calculate each monthly bill under the exact documents, then add the months. If a plan changes value by time of day, use interval data rather than monthly totals.

The Electricity Facts Label, or EFL, is the standardized summary for the import plan. It shows the price examples, recurring charges, contract term, renewable content, and early termination fee. The solar purchase terms may live in a separate buyback agreement, tariff, or rider. Save both. The EFL guide explains how to rebuild the import side of the bill.

Apply those four parts month by month, add the year, then repeat with lower production or higher usage. A new EV or battery can change the winner.

If the best result depends on landing just below a cap every month or on an unusually high wholesale-price interval repeating, call that uncertainty what it is. A slightly higher expected bill under a stable formula can be reasonable; the calculation should reveal the tradeoff rather than conceal it.

Can a plan with a lower buyback rate cost less?

Yes. A lower-buyback plan can cost less when it also has a lower import rate, a smaller monthly fee, broader credit application, or better terms for unused credits. The annual total, not the export line by itself, answers the question.

The example also gives you a reusable break-even formula:

Extra exports needed = (extra import cost + extra fixed cost) ÷ extra export credit per kWh

Run the formula only after applying caps. If the required exports exceed the plan’s eligible export limit, the high-buyback plan cannot catch up for that home under those assumptions.

Do not treat a negative modeled energy balance as a guaranteed check. Some agreements let credits offset only the provider’s energy charges; others leave delivery and fixed charges payable, bank the unused portion, or end the value when the account closes. Model the credit boundary before celebrating the total.

How do you use your own solar data?

Use twelve recent months of separate import and export data. Fifteen-minute intervals are best when the import or export price changes with time or when a battery changes the home’s energy flow.

Many customers with advanced meters in competitive areas can obtain interval data through their provider or Smart Meter Texas. A utility may need time after permission to operate to configure the outflow channel and update the premise’s market profile. Oncor, for example, explains that its meter records inflow and surplus generation separately and that the data path can take additional processing time after permission to operate.

If the home already has solar

Download a complete year that includes both hot and mild months. For each billing month, record:

• Imported kWh from the meter or bill.
• Exported kWh from the meter or bill.
• Total production from the solar app.
• Current export credit and every other current-period bill charge.

For matching dates, production minus exports is approximately self-consumed solar, allowing for battery movement, equipment consumption, and data revisions. Then calculate two useful ratios:

Export ratio = exported solar ÷ total solar production
Import-to-export ratio = grid imports ÷ solar exports

The export ratio shows how much production is exposed to buyback terms. The second shows how much import cost the plan must carry relative to credits. Neither selects a plan by itself.

If the system is new or still being designed

Ask for a time-matched model, not only an annual production estimate. The model should combine the home’s historical interval use with expected solar output for the proposed array’s size, direction, tilt, shading, and equipment. It should report projected self-consumption, imports, and exports separately by month.

Also request a less-favorable case. Solar economics should not depend on every production and usage assumption breaking in the same direction.

Why can midday solar exports be worth less?

Wholesale value reflects what one additional kWh is worth to the grid at that time, not the full retail bundle on a household bill. Solar output is highest around midday, and many systems produce together. That abundant, low-marginal-cost supply reduces the generation ERCOT needs from more expensive sources and often pushes midday prices below prices later in the day. The U.S. Energy Information Administration documented this shift in ERCOT: growing midday solar has displaced natural-gas generation, while batteries increasingly discharge after solar output falls in the evening.

This is the economic rationale for time-based export credits. They reflect when energy is more useful to the market and create a reason to store or shift energy into tighter hours. The tradeoff is that the solar owner receives a less predictable credit.

Neither structure guarantees a better household result. Wholesale-linked credit transfers price volatility to the solar owner, and a hot afternoon, generator outage, low wind, or transmission constraint can raise prices while panels are still producing. The EIA’s current ERCOT generation analysis shows the broader midday-solar and evening-battery pattern; your plan documents and interval data determine the dollars on your bill.

How does a battery change the math?

A battery changes when the home imports and exports. It can store midday solar that would have earned a low export credit, then discharge later to avoid a higher import. Whether that wins depends on the export value given up, the later import cost avoided, energy lost during charging and discharging, reserve needs, equipment limits, and any battery-program payment.

The clean comparison for one solar kWh is:

Export now: export credit
Store and use later: battery efficiency × avoided later import cost, less relevant cycling cost and lost program value

Backup power has value too, but it is not an electricity-bill credit. Keep resilience, bill savings, and program compensation as separate lines so one battery benefit is not counted twice. The home-battery and virtual-power-plant guide explains dispatch control, backup reserve, export, and program payments in detail.

Texas solar buyback FAQ

Does Texas have net metering?

Texas does not have one statewide net-metering requirement. Competitive-area exports are sold to the retail provider under agreed terms; non-choice areas use the serving utility’s or cooperative’s tariff and rules.

Do Oncor or CenterPoint pay for excess solar power?

Not on a normal competitive retail account. The local utility handles interconnection, metering, and energy-flow data; the retail provider serving the address sets and applies the export credit.

Do you need a special meter for solar buyback in Texas?

You need approved interconnection and metering configured to record both directions separately. That may be one advanced meter rather than two physical meters. Wait for the local utility’s permission to operate.

Does a Texas solar meter run backward?

Modern Texas solar meters generally record inflow and outflow separately. Solar used inside the home never crosses the meter, and the retail agreement or utility tariff determines whether exports offset imports on the bill.

Can solar buyback make your Texas electric bill negative?

An account can sometimes build a credit, but the plan controls what it offsets, whether it rolls over, and whether it has cash value. Fixed or non-creditable charges may remain due.

Sources and related reading

The primary Texas rules are PUCT §25.217, Distributed Renewable Generation, §25.213, Metering for Distributed Renewable Generation, and §25.211, Interconnection of On-Site Distributed Generation. ERCOT explains its real-time market and settlement price reports. Utility-specific interconnection steps are available from Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas, and TNMP.

Reviewed August 10, 2026. This guide provides general educational information, not legal advice. Rules and plan terms can change; confirm current PUCT materials, utility requirements, and your plan documents for your situation.

Continue with how to read an Electricity Facts Label, TDU delivery charges explained, home batteries and virtual power plants, or how the Texas electricity market works.