Utility guides
The company on your bill decides your solar math
Written by the Solar Learning Lab research deskUpdated August 17, 20263 min read
Shoppers compare installers for weeks and never read a word about the utility those panels will feed. That is backwards. The utility sets what a kilowatt-hour costs you, what an exported kilowatt-hour earns you, and how long the interconnection queue runs. Two identical systems in the same metro can pay back years apart because the wires belong to different companies. These guides go tariff by tariff through the six utilities behind our city pages.
Florida
Florida Power & Light
One tariff for nearly the whole state, a bill built from nine separate line items, and full retail net metering that still works the old fashioned way. We take the RS-1 rate apart charge by charge.
New York City
Con Edison
The priciest power in our coverage, plus a monthly charge that applies only to solar owners. The choice between classic net metering and the Value Stack changes what a Brooklyn roof earns.
Los Angeles
LADWP
A city owned utility that never adopted the export cuts California's big three took in 2023. Retail rate crediting survives here, and that quietly makes LA one of the better solar deals in the state.
Houston
CenterPoint Energy
CenterPoint owns the wires but never sells you a kilowatt-hour. In Houston your solar economics live in whichever retail plan you sign, and the buyback fine print varies more than most shoppers expect.
Phoenix metro
Arizona Public Service
Export credits set in annual tranches that only move one direction. Your rate locks for ten years at whatever tranche is live when you apply, which turns application timing into real money.
Phoenix metro
Salt River Project
A public power district with an elected board, meters that track exports instantaneously instead of netting them, and a flat 3.45 cent export price. Different physics of billing than any IOU we cover.
How these guides connect to the rest of the site
Our city pages answer the question of whether solar pens out where you live. These utility guides answer why. The rate tables on the Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City and Phoenix pages all trace back to the tariffs documented here. When a tariff changes, we update both layers and note the date.
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