Arkansas Net Metering Policy
Net Metering exists in almost every state, including Arkansas. How does Net Metering work, exactly? As an Arkansas homeowner, you get full retail rate credit for the amount of electricity you send back into the grid with your solar panels. Net Metering mandates that your utility company monitor the amount of energy your solar power system generates, as well as how much energy your property actually consumes. This is ensure that you get credit for the surplus of energy you don’t use, thus building up energy credits you can use in the future on lower, cloudier days with little production. In Arkansas, Net Metering is offered through all utility companies and you will get credited for full retail electricity rates when your property produces more solar power than you are using.
In Arkansas, systems partaking in Net Metering are permitted to be up to 25 kW in size. 25 kW equates to roughly 80 solar panels, which is often more than enough to produce the amount of power your home needs.
An inside look into one of Arkansas’s largest utilities, Entergy, LLC, offers a Net Metering policy similar to many around the state.
For qualified customers that generate electric power using solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, or qualified biomass resources. Net Metering is a means of crediting these customers for energy they supply to the grid while billing them for energy they consume from the grid. Net Metering is available to residential customers whose Net Metering facilities have generator capacity up to 25 kilowatts (or generator capacity representing the customer’s highest residential usage in the previous twelve months) and to non-residential customers whose Net Metering facilities have generator capacity up to 20 megawatts (capacity over 1 MW requires Commission pre-approval). Customers may not take service under the Net-Metering Service Schedule if they are already taking service under any other tariff with provisions for alternative source generation or cogeneration.
With Net Metering, the kilowatt-hours (kWh) produced by the customer and supplied to the grid offset the kWh supplied to the customer in that month (meaning the customer is billed for net kWh). If the customer sends more kWh to the grid than used, the net kWh used for billing are set to zero that month. Any kWh generated by the customer in excess of the kWh used are accumulated and credited to the customer’s account associated with the meter physically attached to the customer’s Net Metering Facility (“Designated Meter”) in the next applicable billing period.
A customer taking service under the Net Metering Service Schedule also has the option to request that any remaining net excess generation (expressed in kWh) be credited to one or more of the net metering customer’s meters (“Additional Meters”) in the rank order provided by the customer. The net metering customer must provide at least 30 days notice to Entergy Arkansas, LLC by submitting a completed Net-Metering Meter Aggregation and Common Ownership form (see link below), the requested customer information, and the list of the Additional Meters and the designated rank order in which any excess kWh credit should be applied.
A net metering customer may choose to have Entergy Arkansas, LLC purchase net excess generation when there are net excess generation kWh associated with a net metering customer’s account which are older than 24 months. If a net metering customer ceases to be a customer of Entergy Arkansas, LLC, ceases to operate the net metered facility, or transfers the net metering facility to another person or entity, Entergy Arkansas, LLC will purchase any net excess generation kWh remaining associated with the net metering customer’s account. Any net excess generation kWh that are purchased by Entergy Arkansas, LLC under these circumstances will be purchased at Entergy Arkansas, LLC’s estimated annual average avoided cost rate for wholesale energy.
You can read Entergy’s full Net Metering policy here.
Tron Solar has over 400 Five-Star Google verified reviews and is one of the leading Midwest solar energy providers for homeowners and commercial properties. Having helped hundreds of homeowners convert to solar energy, Tron has successfully reduced families’ power bills and saved them money by converting to solar energy. We take pride in using the highest quality products available in the solar power market and our excellent customer service experience. Tron Solar offers a variety of solar energy services, ranging from residential solar panel installation to commercial solar. Tron Solar currently serves Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Arkansas and Wisconsin.
Click here to request a free solar savings design for your property, completely free!