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Net Metering Program
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Walton EMC net metering in Georgia

Northeast of Atlanta, including Walton, Barrow, Gwinnett, Oconee and Newton counties.

Type
Cooperative
Accounts
130K

What they credit you

Avoided energy cost, 2.6 cents in 2026

Published terms

Walton EMC credits exported power at avoided energy cost rather than at the retail rate, and its own page dates the figure precisely: $0.026 per kWh from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Walton charges between 8.85 and 12.95 cents for the power you buy, so an exported kilowatt hour is worth between a third and a fifth of an imported one. That is the widest gap of any provider on this page.

Month to month
The credit appears on the bill for the billing period, and any remaining credit balance is applied to the next month’s charges.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Installers serving Walton EMC 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 Walton EMC 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 Walton EMC bill

An average Georgia 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$175.71
$175.71
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 41626 kilowatt hours. A 1,074 kilowatt hour month against 1,374 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 300 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $175.71 to $0.00 at 16.36 cents per kilowatt hour.

Georgia average household use, 1,074 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 16.36¢ 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.

Walton EMC requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in Walton EMC territory.

Walton EMC 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 Walton EMC 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. Georgia’s Distributed Generation Act defines an eligible residential system as 10 kW or less, and Georgia Power applies that limit to the inverter nameplate at the service point. Some cooperatives allow more: Walton EMC sets its residential limit at 50 kW. Walton EMC sets its own limits. Ask Walton EMC 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 Walton EMC 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 avoided energy cost is set a calendar year at a time, so the 2.6 cents expires on 31 December 2026 and the 2027 figure is a board decision nobody has made yet. Confirm it in writing, and budget the $800 metering cost, which is rarely in a first quote.

What Walton EMC 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
$30.00 a month
How it is set
Walton EMC’s residential schedule sets a $30.00 monthly Service Charge in both seasons. Energy is 12.25 cents for the first 800 kWh and 12.95 cents above that from May to October, and 12.05 cents for the first 400 kWh, 9.75 cents for the next 700 and 8.85 cents above 1,100 kWh from November to April. All of it is subject to the Power Cost Adjustment. Set that against the 2.6 cents Walton pays for an exported kilowatt hour — and note that figure has an expiry on it, published as “$0.026 per kilowatt hour with an effective date of 1/1/2026 through 12/31/2026”, so it is due to be reset at the end of the year. Unlike the other Georgia cooperatives on this site, Walton adds no separate monthly charge for having panels: Jackson bills solar members $10.00 a month on top, and Cobb and GreyStone both reserve the right to levy one without publishing an amount. Walton’s solar cost is charged once rather than monthly, and it is not small — “the customer-owner is responsible for the incremental costs of the metering equipment and its installation, currently $800”, on top of the rule that “all costs of the interconnection are paid by the customer-owner”. Budget for that alongside the array rather than after it. Residential generation is capped at 50 kW, and Walton is only obliged to buy on a first come, first served basis until the cumulative capacity of all renewable sources reaches its limit.

Walton EMC residential rates, $30.00 service charge confirmed on its published rates page 30 September 2026; solar terms, metering cost and avoided energy cost from Walton EMC, Selling Your Solar Power, rate window 1 January to 31 December 2026 · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Applying to Walton EMC

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

The residential size limit is 50 kW, not 10
Walton sets its own limit at "no more than 50 kilowatts for residential applications", five times the figure in the state Act. If you have a large roof and a large load, this is a materially different starting point from Georgia Power.
The meter costs $800 and it is yours to pay
Walton states the member "is responsible for the incremental costs of the metering equipment and its installation, currently $800". That is a real line in the budget and it is rarely in a first quote.
Exports are credited at avoided energy cost
Not at retail. Walton credits kilowatt hours "supplied during the billing period at avoided energy cost", with the credit appearing on that period’s bill.
Which meter you get depends on how it is wired
Bi-directional metering if the system connects on your side of the meter, single directional if it connects on the co-op’s side. The two are billed differently, so it is worth knowing which one your installer is proposing.
Interconnection costs are the member’s
Walton makes the member responsible for a safe interconnection and all its costs, and handles each request individually.
The 0.2 percent ceiling applies here too
Walton states it "is only required to purchase energy from eligible distributed generation facilities on a first-come, first-served basis" until the cumulative capacity reaches the statutory 0.2 percent of its previous year’s peak demand. Nobody publishes how much is left.

From Walton EMC’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source

Walton EMC net metering questions

Does Walton EMC offer one for one net metering?
No. Walton EMC credits exported power at avoided energy cost rather than at the retail rate, and its own page dates the figure precisely: $0.026 per kWh from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Walton charges between 8.85 and 12.95 cents for the power you buy, so an exported kilowatt hour is worth between a third and a fifth of an imported one. That is the widest gap of any provider on this page.
What does Walton EMC pay for power sent back to the grid?
Avoided energy cost, 2.6 cents in 2026. The credit appears on the bill for the billing period, and any remaining credit balance is applied to the next month’s charges.
Do I need a battery with Walton EMC?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Walton EMC 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 Walton EMC territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my Walton EMC bill?
Sign in at waltonemc.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 Walton EMC?
The avoided energy cost is set a calendar year at a time, so the 2.6 cents expires on 31 December 2026 and the 2027 figure is a board decision nobody has made yet. Confirm it in writing, and budget the $800 metering cost, which is rarely in a first quote.