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Net Metering Program
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Oklahoma Gas and Electric net metering in Arkansas

A small footprint in western Arkansas around Fort Smith. Mostly an Oklahoma utility, with an Arkansas territory under Arkansas rules.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
70K

What they credit you

Every exported kWh at 3.12 cents, with no netting

Published terms

Under Non-Legacy Net-Metering, OG&E bills every kilowatt hour it supplies at the full rate and credits every kilowatt hour you feed back at its avoided cost, 3.12 cents from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, reset each March from the prior year’s average Southwest Power Pool price in its load zone. The dollar credit applies to the bill except the customer charge, and any surplus carries to the next bill.

Month to month
Dollar surplus carries to the next bill.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-01 · source

Installers serving OG&E customers

Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.

Not sure which to choose?

These are real companies operating in OG&E territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are ordered by reviews, years trading and BBB grade. None of them pays us for placement. Pick the one you want and we will call you to arrange it.

Ordering combines three things we read from primary sources: Google review count and rating, years trading taken from the company’s Better Business Bureau profile rather than its own marketing, and its BBB letter grade. BBB accreditation is shown but never scored, because it is a paid membership rather than a mark of quality.

Check any contractor license yourself at the state register. Do that before you sign anything, with any company, including ours.

What this looks like on a OG&E bill

An average Arkansas household, against a system sized to cover its year. The energy charge is the part that goes to zero. The fixed monthly charge underneath it is the part that never does, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

Meter readingkWh
Energy charge$147.98
$147.98
We have read this provider’s own tariff. What it still bills you at zero is set out below, with the sheet it came from. The energy line above uses the statewide average. See what they still bill
DirectionReading…

Meter reading falling from 41926 to 41634 kilowatt hours. A 1,048 kilowatt hour month against 1,340 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 292 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $147.98 to $0.00 at 14.12 cents per kilowatt hour.

Arkansas average household use, 1,048 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 14.12¢ per kWh. Your utility still bills a fixed monthly customer charge that no system offsets, so this is the energy part of the bill, which is the part that goes away.

OG&E requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in OG&E territory.

OG&E does not credit the power you send back at the rate it charges you to take it.

That does not make solar a bad idea in OG&E territory. It changes what you should build. When exports are worth a fraction of retail the credit stops being the return, and the job becomes using more of your own production inside the house, which usually means a larger array than a one for one utility would need.

Sizing is where that gets decided, so ask about it directly. Arkansas now sets the export credit from avoided costs rather than the retail rate, so a system built past your own daytime usage is selling at wholesale. The exception is a system grandfathered before October 2024, which is credited one for one until 2040. OG&E sets its own limits. Ask OG&E what it allows before you accept that a bigger system is off the table.

A battery then does two separate jobs. It moves daytime production into the evening so you use it instead of selling it, and it keeps the house running when the grid goes down. That second job is not a bonus. Panels on their own shut off in an outage, by design, so a roof full of them powers nothing during a storm. That is the part we will not refer around.

So we treat it as a requirement, not an upgrade. We will not refer you for a panels-only system in OG&E territory, and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one without raising storage first.

Our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement

What your installer should be telling you

Nothing is netted, even within the month: power exported at midday earns 3.12 cents, and power drawn back that evening costs the full rate. Systems grandfathered under Legacy Net-Metering keep one-for-one crediting until 1 June 2040, with credits that never expire; ask OG&E which tariff a house you are buying is on.

What OG&E bills you anyway

In a month when your production covers everything you use, the energy charge can reach zero. This does not. It is the floor under every bill, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

The charge
$9.75 a month, about $12.58 with the formula rate plan
How it is set
Residential Service Standard Rate R-1 sets a Customer Charge of $9.75 a month, unchanged since its 2017 rate order (Docket 16-052-U), and “The minimum monthly bill shall be the Customer Charge.” On top of every base rate component, the customer charge included, OG&E’s Formula Rate Plan Rider adds a percentage: 28.9766% for residential customers from 1 April 2024 (Docket 18-046-FR, Order No. 28), the last adjustment on file, which takes the floor to about $12.58 before municipal tax. Energy is 5.80 cents a kilowatt hour for the first 1,400 in June to October and 8.50 cents above, and 3.60 cents for the first 600 in November to May and 2.60 cents above, before the formula rate plan and the energy cost, transmission and efficiency riders. For systems connected under Non-Legacy Net-Metering, OG&E meters what it supplies and what you feed back separately, with no netting: every kilowatt hour you draw is billed at the full rate, and every kilowatt hour you export earns the avoided cost, 3.12 cents from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027. That credit, in dollars, cannot reduce the customer charge, and any surplus carries to the next bill. Systems grandfathered under Legacy Net-Metering keep one-for-one kilowatt hour crediting until 1 June 2040.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (Arkansas): Rate Schedule R-1, Sheet Nos. 3.0 and 3.1 (Docket 16-052-U, approved 18 May 2017); Formula Rate Plan Rider, Sheet Nos. 80.0 to 80.3, and Attachment A-1, residential 28.9766% (Docket 18-046-FR, Order No. 28, effective 1 April 2024); Tables of Riders, Sheet Nos. 99.0 and 99.1; Non-Legacy Net-Metering Schedule NET-1 NL, Sheet Nos. 63.1 and 63.2, and Attachment 4, 2nd Revised Sheet No. 63.17 (Docket 23-070-TF, effective 1 March 2026); Legacy Net-Metering Schedule NET-1 L, Sheet Nos. 62.1 to 62.3 · checked 2026-10-01 · source

Applying to OG&E

What OG&E itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.

30 September 2024 was the line
Systems whose interconnection agreement was submitted before that date keep one-to-one net metering until 1 June 2040. Everyone after it is on net energy billing at avoided cost.
That grandfathering runs to June 2040
If you are buying an Arkansas house with solar already on it, ask for the interconnection date in writing, and ask the utility whether the grandfathered terms carry over to you. A system that qualified before 30 September 2024 is worth substantially more than one connected today.
Net energy billing means the utility sets the credit
Act 278 lets utilities set bill credits from avoided costs, the expense they would incur generating or buying the power themselves, rather than from what they charge you.
Ask for the number, not the name of the program
"Net energy billing" tells you the mechanism, not the value. Get the current avoided cost figure in cents per kWh in writing before you sign.

From OG&E’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source

OG&E net metering questions

Does OG&E offer one for one net metering?
No. Under Non-Legacy Net-Metering, OG&E bills every kilowatt hour it supplies at the full rate and credits every kilowatt hour you feed back at its avoided cost, 3.12 cents from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, reset each March from the prior year’s average Southwest Power Pool price in its load zone. The dollar credit applies to the bill except the customer charge, and any surplus carries to the next bill.
What does OG&E pay for power sent back to the grid?
Every exported kWh at 3.12 cents, with no netting. Dollar surplus carries to the next bill.
Do I need a battery with OG&E?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because OG&E does not credit exports one for one, the return has to come from using your own production rather than selling it, which after dark means storage and usually a larger array than a one for one utility would need. The other half is backup: panels alone shut off in an outage, so a battery is what keeps the house running in a storm. We do not refer panels-only systems in OG&E territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my OG&E bill?
Sign in at oge.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
What is the catch with OG&E?
Nothing is netted, even within the month: power exported at midday earns 3.12 cents, and power drawn back that evening costs the full rate. Systems grandfathered under Legacy Net-Metering keep one-for-one crediting until 1 June 2040, with credits that never expire; ask OG&E which tariff a house you are buying is on.