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Net Metering Program
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Gainesville Regional Utilities net metering in Florida

Gainesville and parts of Alachua County.

Type
Municipal
Accounts
100K

What they credit you

Fuel adjustment rate

Published terms

GRU credits the power you export at its current fuel adjustment rate, not at the retail rate you pay to buy power back. The April 2024 vote by the GRU Authority to lower what GRU pays for exported home solar is what produced this method; owners who were already connected were not moved onto it.

Published terms · checked 2026-08-26 · source

Installers serving GRU 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 GRU territory. EPC Solar and Bold Energy are listed first because they are the companies we introduce first. Volt Home is listed last. 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 GRU bill

An average Florida 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$132.04
$132.04
Minimum monthly bill$17.00
Still due$17.00
DirectionReading…

Meter reading falling from 41926 to 41618 kilowatt hours. A 1,104 kilowatt hour month against 1,412 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 308 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $132.04 to $0.00 at 11.96 cents per kilowatt hour. A fixed monthly charge of $17.00 still applies and is not offset.

Florida average household use, 1,104 kWh a month, at this provider’s own published residential rate. The fixed charge is its minimum bill: it lands at zero kilowatt hours, so nothing you generate removes it. GRU, Residential Rates, effective 1 October 2025.

GRU requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in GRU territory.

GRU 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 GRU 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. Florida’s state interconnection rule caps generation at 90% of your electrical distribution service rating and says nothing at all about your past usage, and it binds only the investor owned utilities. GRU sets its own limits. Ask GRU 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 GRU 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

The fuel adjustment rate moves, and GRU states that program details and rates are subject to change without notice. You also keep paying the customer charge, and any applicable demand charge, whether or not you export anything, so a quote that shows your bill reaching zero is wrong. Get the current export figure from GRU in writing before you sign.

What GRU 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
$17.00 a month
How it is set
The adopted utility fees set the residential customer charge at $17.00 a month and state that "the minimum monthly bill shall be equal to the customer charge", so the floor is one figure. Energy is 8.460 cents per kWh for the first 1,000 and 12.130 cents above that, plus the fuel and purchased power adjustment. GRU’s net metering page says the same thing from the other direction: regardless of whether any excess energy is delivered, the customer still pays the applicable customer charge.

Exhibit A, Utility Fees Rates and Charges, residential service rates section 27-27 · checked 2026-09-19 · source

Applying to GRU

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

Your contractor has to ask permission first
GRU’s process starts with the contractor emailing a Letter of Intent so GRU can check the circuit has capacity and confirm the system is not oversized. It answers in one to two business days. Nothing else happens until that comes back.
Capacity approval expires after a year
An approved capacity request is honored for one year, and GRU rescinds it after a year of inactivity. If your project stalls over a winter, check the approval is still alive before you order equipment.
Every email needs the address in the subject line
All correspondence goes to DL_Solar@gru.com and GRU requires the subject line to be the service address of the installation. It is a small thing that quietly delays applications that ignore it.
You pay the fixed charges regardless
GRU states that whether or not you export anything, you still pay the applicable customer charge and any applicable demand charge. Solar reduces the energy part of your bill, not the standing part.
Insurance is recommended, then required
Tier 1 may carry general liability of not less than $100,000. Tier 2 shall carry at least $1,000,000 and Tier 3 at least $2,000,000. Note the shift from may to shall at 10 kW.
Ask for a Solar Pathfinder report
GRU recommends getting one from your contractor showing a solar window of at least 70 percent, unshaded by trees, buildings or anything else. That is a specific, checkable number to hold a quote against rather than a promise about sunshine.
Talk to GRU before you buy anything
Its own instruction is to make contact before purchasing panels or starting construction, on 352-393-1413. Given the circuit capacity check gates everything else, that is genuinely the first call to make.
Equipment and wiring rules
PV modules must be UL or ETL listed, you obtain all permits, and the final electrical connection must be made by a licensed electrical contractor.

From GRU’s published guidelines · checked 2026-08-26 · source

GRU net metering questions

Does GRU offer one for one net metering?
No. GRU credits the power you export at its current fuel adjustment rate, not at the retail rate you pay to buy power back. The April 2024 vote by the GRU Authority to lower what GRU pays for exported home solar is what produced this method; owners who were already connected were not moved onto it.
What does GRU pay for power sent back to the grid?
Fuel adjustment rate.
Do I need a battery with GRU?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because GRU 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 GRU territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my GRU bill?
Sign in at gru.com. Open Billing and usage, then Bill history. Download the latest statement. Or screenshot the summary showing your total and kWh. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
What is the catch with GRU?
The fuel adjustment rate moves, and GRU states that program details and rates are subject to change without notice. You also keep paying the customer charge, and any applicable demand charge, whether or not you export anything, so a quote that shows your bill reaching zero is wrong. Get the current export figure from GRU in writing before you sign.