Grid & off-grid

Net metering calculator, Louisiana

Enter your exact usage, system size, and rate details to see how Louisiana's net metering policy affects your solar bill, with precise controls for season, tiered rates, and fixed fees.

Your numbers

1 Project details Optional
Shown on your exported report. Leave blank to skip.
2 Your usage and system
Find this on a recent utility bill, usually labeled kWh used.
Use your quoted or planned system size. Panel count times panel wattage divided by 1,000 gives a rough figure.
Solar production swings seasonally; pick a specific month type to see how your bill shifts.
Most utilities charge a flat customer or connection fee regardless of usage.
3 Your location and rate
Defaulted to Louisiana's average peak sun hours. Adjust if you know your local figure.
Defaulted to Louisiana's current average residential rate. Your utility's actual rate may differ.
Louisiana typically credits exports around 40% of retail. Net metering ended for new customers in 2020; exports now credited near avoided cost.
Some utilities charge progressively higher per-kWh rates as monthly usage climbs into higher tiers.
Accounts for inverter loss, wiring loss, dust, and temperature derate combined.
Informational only. A monthly cycle means unused export credit does not carry to the next bill; annual and rolling cycles do.

How it works

Three steps to your Louisiana solar bill estimate

Step 1

Enter your usage, system size, and season

Pull your monthly kWh from a recent bill and enter your planned or quoted system size in kW. If you only know your panel count, multiply it by each panel's wattage and divide by 1,000 to get a kW figure first. Select a season to model a specific month rather than only an annual average.

Step 2

Confirm your rate, tier, and export credit

Louisiana's typical residential rate and export credit level are filled in by default. Swap in your utility's actual tariff numbers, tier bracket, and fixed monthly fee if you have a recent bill or interconnection agreement showing them.

Step 3

Compare the result to a full retail scenario

Run the net billing vs net metering comparison tool to see exactly how much Louisiana's current export credit rate costs you compared to full 1:1 retail crediting.

How net metering works in Louisiana

Net metering closed to new customers in 2020

Louisiana's Public Service Commission ended traditional net metering for new solar customers in 2020. Anyone who interconnected before that cutoff kept the old retail-rate crediting for the remainder of their agreement.

What avoided cost means for a new Louisiana system

Under the current rules, your utility credits exported power based roughly on what it would otherwise cost them to generate or buy that same electricity elsewhere, not what they charge you at retail. That gap is the single biggest factor separating a pre-2020 system's economics from a system installed today.

Every system installed since is compensated under an avoided-cost structure instead, a meaningfully lower rate than what earlier solar owners still receive.

Self-consumption is where new systems recover value

Since avoided-cost crediting pays well below retail for anything exported, a system sized to raise your own self-consumption rate, rather than maximize total production, tends to perform better financially than an oversized one. Storing midday surplus for evening use is worth modeling closely under this structure.

Interconnection still requires utility approval either way

Regardless of which compensation structure applies to your system, your utility still needs to review and approve an interconnection agreement before your system can operate. The grid interconnection cost estimator covers what to budget for that process, and Louisiana's tax credit and rebate estimator shows what still helps offset it.

Does a lower export rate change the off-grid math?

Even with avoided-cost crediting well below retail, staying grid-tied remains far less expensive than going fully off-grid, since off-grid systems require battery capacity built for the worst stretch of weather rather than everyday cycling. The grid tie vs off grid comparison tool compares both paths using Louisiana's current numbers.

Questions

Frequently asked

Louisiana's Public Service Commission ended traditional net metering for new customers in 2020. New systems since are credited at the utility's avoided cost, roughly what it would cost the utility to generate or buy that power elsewhere, well below the roughly 13 cent retail rate.

The average residential rate in Louisiana was about 13 cents per kWh as of late 2026, among the lowest in the US, per EIA data. The Louisiana PSC closed traditional net metering to new customers in 2020, replacing it with avoided-cost crediting.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted 3-2 in September 2019 to close traditional net metering to new solar customers starting January 1, 2020. Systems interconnected before that cutoff kept retail-rate crediting under a 15-year grandfathering period; systems installed since are compensated under an avoided-cost structure instead.

Avoided cost is roughly what your utility would otherwise pay to generate or purchase that same electricity elsewhere, rather than the retail rate you're billed. The avoided cost rate calculator breaks the figure down into its typical energy, capacity, and grid-related components.

Related tools

Compare Louisiana's policy to other structures

Grid tie vs off grid comparison Net billing vs net metering Buy all sell all vs net metering Avoided cost rate calculator Grid export cap calculator Grid interconnection cost estimator Grid tie with battery backup comparison All grid and off-grid tools