The first bill after your system has been put online

After your solar array has been turned on, your first bill will be one of the more confusing bills to read. The reason for this is the chart on the second or third page of that bill. 

In the first table, you’ll see multiple readings with different dates. In the first “use” line is a normal, scheduled reading with your old meter. This will account for any energy you consumed between your last normal meter reading and the installation of your new meter.

The next line readings of “use” and “gen” are taken the day that your new meter is installed (which is why you’ll see 0kwh for the “previous reading” column for both of these lines). Please note, after the final interconnection approval of your completed system, RGE can take up to 10 days to install the new, mandated meter at your house. 

The next, normally scheduled meter reading with your new meter will be in the “current meter read” column for the new “use” and “gen” lines of your bill. It is now displaying the amount of electricity that you are “importing” (use) from the utility as well as the excess electricity from your solar array that you are “exporting” (gen) to RGE. Important to note is that “gen” will never match the total generation that your inverter displays. This is because “gen” on your RGE bill only shows the excess generation that your system exported to the grid and none of the array’s production that was used immediately by your home.

The second table displays one (1) billing period, but has two rows to account for the readings taken directly before and after the installation of the new meter. On all subsequent bills, this table will only have one row.

Reading your bill: When generation is lower than consumption

On all subsequent bills, you will see a similar chart to the one discussed on the previous page. However, it will have one fewer row due to the fact that your new meter has already been installed

During a billing period in which your array exported less energy than you imported from the utility, the second table on your bill will show how the math works out. If you start with 0 prior excess generation, the current generation column of, let’s say 401 kwh is subtracted from your current usage of, say 585 kwh. This leaves you with 184 kwh to pay for and 0 excess generation to roll over to the next month. 

Reading your bill: when generation exceeds consumption:

Let’s say it’s the summer and you export more electricity to the grid than what you import. In this example, your current generation is 525 kwh, which erases your entire current usage of 445 kwh. This leaves 80 kwh of remaining excess generation that will roll over to the next month.

Reading your bill: applying excess generation:

Lastly, excess generation will always be recorded in table 2 on page 3 of your bill. In this example, prior excess generation is 80 kWh) and current generation is 354 kWh. This totals 434 kWh. That number is subtracted from your current usage, which in this example is 475 kWh which leaves just 41 kWh that you are billed for during this particular period. In this case, there is no remaining excess generation that will be rolled over to the next month, so the “remaining excess generation” column in the chart shows 0kwh. 

However, let’s say that instead of just 80kwh of “prior excess generation,” you had 180 kwh. In that case, you wouldn’t be billed for any kwh, as the 180kwh of prior excess generation is combined with your current generation of 354kwh. This equals 534kwh and when you subtract the current generation of 475kwh, you have 59kwh leftover, which is recorded in the “remaining excess generation” column while you enjoy not having to pay for any consumption on that month’s electric bill.