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Net Metering Program
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Ocala Electric Utility net metering in Florida

Ocala and parts of Marion County.

Type
Municipal
Accounts
50K

What they credit you

Wholesale rate

Published terms

OEU buys the power you export at a wholesale rate, not at the retail rate you pay to buy it back. It also requires the system to be sized to your own consumption, and calculates your annual usage itself to check that.

Published terms · checked 2026-08-26 · source

Installers serving Ocala Electric 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 Ocala Electric 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 Ocala Electric 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$142.86
$142.86
Minimum monthly bill$20.00
Still due$20.00
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 $142.86 to $0.00 at 12.94 cents per kilowatt hour. A fixed monthly charge of $20.00 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. Florida PSC, Comparative Rate Statistics, 31 December 2024.

Ocala Electric requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in Ocala Electric territory.

Ocala Electric 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 Ocala Electric 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. Ocala Electric sets its own limits. Ask Ocala Electric 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 Ocala Electric 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

OEU publishes that it pays a wholesale rate but not what that rate actually is, so we will not print a number. Ask OEU for the current figure in writing before you sign, and treat any installer quoting you a specific Ocala export rate as someone who should be able to show you where it came from.

What Ocala Electric 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
$20.00 a month
How it is set
Ocala publishes one Electric Rate Schedule covering every class, and the residential block sets a Customer Charge of $20.00 a month with no minimum-bill clause anywhere in the document — the only minimums it names are security deposits. So the customer charge is simply what you pay before a kilowatt hour moves. Read the column, not the row. The schedule prints two side by side, headed “FY2023-2024” and “1-Mar-24”, and every figure appears twice: the customer charge is $17.00 in the first and $20.00 in the second. The second is the one in force, and taking the left-hand column would understate the charge by three dollars a month. Energy above it runs 7.789 cents a kilowatt hour with transmission at 0.635 cents and distribution at 1.702 cents, a subtotal of 10.126 cents, and a Power Cost Adjustment on top that the schedule leaves as “TBD” because it “changes throughout year by resolution”. Two lines at the head of the schedule matter to a solar household and Ocala defines neither: a “Solar Rate Adder” of 1.600 cents and a “Net Matering Demand Credit” of 3.000 cents, shown in brackets as a credit. The schedule states the amounts and nothing about what they are applied to or who pays them. Ask Ocala which of the two lands on your bill and on which kilowatt hours before you size anything.

Ocala Electric Utility, Electric Rate Schedule (All), Residential Charges, the 1-Mar-24 column of the two the schedule prints; linked as current from the City of Ocala Rates and Municipal Fees page when read on 1 October 2026 · checked 2026-10-01 · source

Applying to Ocala Electric

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

OEU checks your system against a year of your own usage
Its net metering page states that a system "must be sized to match your home’s energy use" and that OEU calculates your annual usage to confirm the sizing. That is a tighter and more personal test than the state rule, which caps generation at 90% of your distribution service rating and says nothing about consumption. A design drawn from roof area rather than from your bills can fail it.
You have to file it yourself
OEU no longer accepts interconnection agreements from contractors, installers or third-party processors. The property owner must submit them directly. If an Ocala installer tells you they will handle the paperwork, they are describing a process OEU has stopped allowing.
There is an in-person meeting
After your initial request, OEU contacts you to schedule a face-to-face meeting to go through the process and sign the agreements. No other Florida utility we have read requires this, and it is not something you can delegate.
OEU decides your maximum size, before you shop
Step two of its own process is OEU calculating the largest system it will allow on your service. Getting that number first means you are pricing something that can actually be approved.
Start here
The Initial Solar Request Form at SolarRequestForm.ocalafl.gov, emailed to electricengineeringsolar@ocalafl.gov. Every form, document and question goes to that one address.
You cannot pull permits without OEU first
An OEU approval letter is required before the City of Ocala or Marion County Building Department will issue installation permits. Which of the two you use depends on your address.
Two agencies have to sign off
OEU submits the executed agreements to both the City of Ocala and the Florida Municipal Power Agency. Allow two to four weeks for that, then the Permission to Operate letter, then roughly two to five business days for the net meter.
Leasing is a different route
OEU publishes a separate RGS Leased Process for leased systems. If you are being offered a lease or a power purchase agreement rather than a purchase, make sure your installer is following that one.

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

Ocala Electric net metering questions

Does Ocala Electric offer one for one net metering?
No. OEU buys the power you export at a wholesale rate, not at the retail rate you pay to buy it back. It also requires the system to be sized to your own consumption, and calculates your annual usage itself to check that.
What does Ocala Electric pay for power sent back to the grid?
Wholesale rate.
Do I need a battery with Ocala Electric?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Ocala Electric 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 Ocala Electric territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my Ocala Electric bill?
Sign in to your utility account at ocalafl.gov. Open Billing history. Download the most recent statement. A photo of the paper bill works too. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
What is the catch with Ocala Electric?
OEU publishes that it pays a wholesale rate but not what that rate actually is, so we will not print a number. Ask OEU for the current figure in writing before you sign, and treat any installer quoting you a specific Ocala export rate as someone who should be able to show you where it came from.