AES Indiana net metering in Indiana
Indianapolis and Marion County. The former Indianapolis Power and Light.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 500K
What they credit you
Wholesale plus 25%, about a quarter of retail
Published termsExports are bought under Excess Distributed Generation at the prior year’s average wholesale price times 1.25, between about 4.2 and 5.6 cents per kWh across the five utilities in 2026, against energy charges of roughly 10 to 20 cents.
- Month to month
- Per each utility’s own EDG tariff.
Published terms · checked 2026-09-05 · source
Installers serving AES Indiana customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
- Bold EnergyLocal installerBatteryBBB B+, accredited4.948 GoogleMulti-state installer working from a Texas base and publishing 84 licenses across 31 states, with battery storage, repairs and panel removal alongside new installs.All of IndianaSelect this installer
- Blue Raven SolarLocal installerBattery24 years tradingBBB A+, accreditedA nineteen state residential installer, now part of the group trading as SunPower after buying those assets out of the 2024 bankruptcy.All of IndianaSelect this installer
These are real companies operating in AES Indiana 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 AES Indiana bill
An average Indiana 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 reading falling from 41926 to 41675 kilowatt hours. A 901 kilowatt hour month against 1,152 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 251 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $157.77 to $0.00 at 17.51 cents per kilowatt hour.
Indiana average household use, 901 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 17.51¢ 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.
Battery backup is mandatory
in AES Indiana territory.
AES Indiana 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 AES Indiana 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. Indiana pays roughly a quarter of the retail rate for exports, so the size that makes sense is the size the house can absorb during daylight. Every kilowatt hour beyond that is sold at wholesale plus a quarter. AES Indiana sets its own limits. Ask AES Indiana 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 AES Indiana 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
Ask for this utility’s current EDG rate in writing and ask what rate the savings model used for later years. It is reset annually against the wholesale market.
What AES Indiana 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
- $12.50 a month up to 325 kWh, $17.00 above it
- How it is set
- Rate RS sets a two-step Customer Charge under the rates that took effect on 27 July 2026: $12.50 a month on a bill for 325 kilowatt hours or less, and $17.00 above that. With solar, the kilowatt hours billed are what you draw from the grid (net inflow, recorded on meter channel 1), so a home that covers much of its own use can drop to the lower step. The minimum is “The Customer Charge which is payable for each month that service is connected.” Exports are bought under the Excess Distributed Generation rider at 5.4325 cents a kilowatt hour, recorded on a separate meter channel, against energy charges of 15.0010 cents for the first 500 kilowatt hours a month and 13.8411 cents beyond, before riders. The credit can bring a bill down to the minimum charge and no further. Anything left carries forward indefinitely, but when you leave the premises it is forfeited to the fuel clause for all customers. The rider also asks for proof of liability insurance with the interconnection application. While the new rates are phased in, Rider 28 takes 0.855 cents off every residential kilowatt hour (its Phase I rate).
Indianapolis Power & Light Company d/b/a AES Indiana, I.U.R.C. No. E-20: Rate RS, Original Nos. 10 and 11, effective 27 July 2026 (Cause No. 46258); Standard Contract Rider No. 16, Excess Distributed Generation, Original Nos. 172 to 172.3; Rider No. 28, Phase-In Rate Adjustment, Original No. 179.95 · checked 2026-10-01 · source
Applying to AES Indiana
What AES Indiana itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Net metering closed on 1 July 2022
- Senate Enrolled Act 309 ended it for new customers at all five investor owned utilities on the same date. Any quote offering Indiana net metering is describing a program you cannot join.
- The replacement has a published formula
- Excess Distributed Generation credit is the average wholesale price of electricity for the prior year, plus 25%. It is recalculated annually for each utility, so the rate moves with the wholesale market rather than with your bill.
- What that works out to, and what you pay
- Each utility posts its rate on its EDG rider. In 2026 AES Indiana pays 5.43 cents per kWh, NIPSCO 4.97, CenterPoint 5.56 and I&M 5.47, and Duke’s published sheet still shows 4.15 cents, set in 2024. Energy charges run from about 10 to 20 cents before riders, so an exported kilowatt hour earns between a quarter and a half of one you buy.
- The rate is not locked
- Because it is reset annually against the previous year’s wholesale average, the figure in your savings model is this year’s number and not a twenty year assumption. Ask what the model assumed for years two onward.
- Cooperatives and municipal systems are outside the statute
- SEA 309 bound the five investor owned utilities. If your provider is a co-op or a municipal system, ask for its own terms; some are better than the statutory replacement.
From AES Indiana’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source
AES Indiana net metering questions
- Does AES Indiana offer one for one net metering?
- No. Exports are bought under Excess Distributed Generation at the prior year’s average wholesale price times 1.25, between about 4.2 and 5.6 cents per kWh across the five utilities in 2026, against energy charges of roughly 10 to 20 cents.
- What does AES Indiana pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Wholesale plus 25%, about a quarter of retail. Per each utility’s own EDG tariff.
- Do I need a battery with AES Indiana?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because AES Indiana 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 AES Indiana territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my AES Indiana bill?
- Sign in at aesindiana.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 AES Indiana?
- Ask for this utility’s current EDG rate in writing and ask what rate the savings model used for later years. It is reset annually against the wholesale market.