Grid & off-grid

Net metering calculator, New York

Enter your exact usage, system size, and rate details to see how New York'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 New York's statewide average. Adjust if you know your local figure.
Defaulted to New York's current average residential rate. Your utility's actual rate may differ.
New York typically credits exports around 85% of retail. Value of Distributed Energy Resources tariff produces compensation close to retail in most territories.
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 New York 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

New York'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 New York's current export credit rate costs you compared to full 1:1 retail crediting.

How net metering works in New York

Traditional net metering closed; VDER replaced it for new customers

New York's original net metering program, sometimes called Phase One, closed to new residential solar customers years ago. Customers who interconnected before that cutoff kept Phase One's near-retail crediting for a 20-year grandfather period. Every new solar customer today falls under the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) tariff instead, commonly called the Value Stack.

VDER breaks compensation into separate value components

Rather than one flat export rate, VDER credits your exports across several distinct components: an energy value tied to wholesale market prices, a capacity value reflecting local grid needs, an environmental value, and sometimes a demand reduction value depending on your utility and location. These stack together to produce your total per-kWh export credit, which is why VDER compensation can vary more from month to month than a flat-rate program would. See the glossary entry for demand charge if that term is new to you.

A monthly Customer Benefit Contribution offsets some of the value

VDER customers pay a Customer Benefit Contribution, a monthly charge based on your system's DC capacity, currently running roughly $0.65 to $1.31 per kW depending on your utility, with most utilities charging less on the Value Stack than they do for legacy net metering. This charge is deducted from your VDER credit rather than billed separately, so it's worth factoring into your expected net savings rather than treating VDER's headline rate as the full picture. The jargon on this page is worth pinning down. The buy-all sell-all entry in our Glossary explains the term in plain English.

Where your credit value can differ by utility and location

Because VDER's capacity and locational components, along with the occasional demand charge offset, are tied to specific grid conditions, two otherwise identical systems in different parts of New York, or even served by different utilities, can earn meaningfully different total credit. Con Edison, National Grid, NYSEG, and the state's other utilities each administer their own VDER implementation within the statewide framework; New York's tax credit and rebate estimator can help you see what applies on top regardless of provider.

Interconnection and the off-grid comparison

Connecting under VDER still requires standard utility interconnection review before your system can operate; the grid interconnection cost estimator covers what that typically costs. And even with VDER's more complex structure, staying grid-tied remains dramatically cheaper than going fully off-grid in New York; the grid tie vs off grid comparison tool shows how much cheaper.

Questions

Frequently asked

New York replaced traditional net metering with the VDER Value Stack for new customers, crediting exports across energy, capacity, and environmental value components rather than one flat rate, typically landing somewhere in the range of 60 to 90% of the retail rate depending on location and time of year, since VDER value doesn't track retail price directly the way net metering does.

The average residential rate in New York was about 29.5 cents per kWh as of October 2026, per EIA data, among the highest in the nation. New solar customers fall under the VDER Value Stack tariff, which replaced traditional net metering with a multi-component export credit.

VDER, the Value of Distributed Energy Resources tariff, replaced traditional net metering for new customers. Instead of one flat export rate, it credits exports across separate components, energy, capacity, environmental, and sometimes demand reduction value, that stack together to produce your total per-kWh credit.

It's a monthly charge for VDER customers based on your system's DC capacity, roughly $0.65 to $1.31 per kW depending on your utility. This amount is deducted from your VDER credit rather than billed separately, so it's worth factoring into your expected net savings.

Related tools

Compare New York's policy to other structures

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