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Net Metering Program
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Kentucky Power net metering in Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky, including Ashland, Pikeville and Hazard. An American Electric Power utility serving twenty eastern counties. It pays the most of any Kentucky utility for exported power and charges the most for the power you buy, which are the same fact seen from two sides.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
165K

What they credit you

9.746 cents a kilowatt hour, set by the Commission

Published terms

The Commission set this utility's export credit at 9.746 cents a kilowatt hour in Case No. 2025-00257, effective 1 March 2026. It buys power from you at that rate and sells it back at 15.385 cents, and the credit can only be applied to the energy charge and to riders billed per kilowatt hour, so it never touches the fixed monthly charge.

Month to month
A dollar-denominated bill credit that carries to the next bill, is not transferable between customers or premises, and is not refunded when the account closes.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Installers serving Kentucky Power 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 Kentucky Power 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 Kentucky Power bill

An average Kentucky 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$149.30
$149.30
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 1,047 kilowatt hour month against 1,339 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 292 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $149.30 to $0.00 at 14.26 cents per kilowatt hour.

Kentucky average household use, 1,047 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 14.26¢ 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.

Kentucky Power requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in Kentucky Power territory.

Kentucky Power 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 Kentucky Power 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. Kentucky’s statute puts the standard bidirectional meter on the supplier, but says any additional meters or distribution upgrades needed "shall be installed at the customer-generator’s expense", so ask what your circuit will require before you size anything. Kentucky Power sets its own limits. Ask Kentucky Power 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 Kentucky Power 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 how much of the 1 percent ceiling is already used before anything else, because that is the question that decides whether you can join at all. This figure is seven months old and replaced a lower one, so anything an installer quotes from an older sheet is out of date. Confirm the current credit in writing too: this rate is a Commission docket rather than a law, two of the four Kentucky rates moved in 2026, and yours can be reopened.

What Kentucky Power 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
$24.00 a month under 2,000 kWh, $38.00 above it
How it is set
Kentucky Power is the only utility on this page whose fixed charge depends on how much you use. Tariff R.S. charges a Service Charge of $24.00 a month for a billing period at or under 2,000 kWh and $38.00 above it, and states that "this tariff is subject to a minimum monthly charge equal to the Service Charge". Energy is 15.385 cents for the first 600 kWh and 11.534 cents above that, plus a temporary charge of 0.494 cents a kilowatt hour running from the November 2025 bill to the August 2027 bill under Case No. 2023-00159. A solar household that cuts its usage below 2,000 kWh also drops from the $38.00 tier to the $24.00 one, which is worth $168 a year on its own.

Tariff R.S., P.S.C. KY. No. 14, Original Sheet No. 5-1 · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Applying to Kentucky Power

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

The best export rate in Kentucky, against the worst retail rate
Kentucky Power credits 9.746 cents a kilowatt hour for residential exports and 9.657 cents for non-residential, effective 1 March 2026. It also charges 15.385 cents for your first 600 kWh, the highest first block in the state. The gap between buying and selling here is the narrowest in Kentucky.
Netting happens inside time of use periods
Alone among the four, Kentucky Power meters net metering "using a time of use (TOU) kilowatt-hour meter capable of measuring the flow of electricity in two (2) directions", and nets within each period. Cheap overnight export cannot pay for expensive afternoon use.
You lose the budget billing plans
Customers on this tariff "will not be eligible for the Company’s Equal Payment Plan (Budget) or Average Monthly Payment Plan". If you rely on a level monthly payment, going solar here ends it.
Leave the tariff and the balance is theirs
"When the customer elects to no longer take service under this Net Metering Service II Tariff, any unused credit shall revert to the Company." Spend the balance down before you change anything.
You cannot switch it on until they have witnessed it
Level 1 applications get an answer in 20 business days, and approval is "subject to successful completion of an initial installation inspection and witness test". You must tell the company within 3 business days of finishing and schedule the test within 10, and you may not operate before it passes.
Net metering can close permanently, one utility at a time
KRS 278.466(1): once net metering reaches "one percent (1%) of a supplier’s single hour peak load during a calendar year, the supplier shall have no further obligation to offer net metering to any new customer-generator at any subsequent time." Ask your supplier how close it is to its 1% before you plan around net metering at all.
The rate is set by the Commission, not by the statute and not by retail
Suppliers compensate for all electricity that flows to them "at a rate ... set by the commission using the ratemaking processes under this chapter". It is a docket number, not a law, and it can be reopened.
The law explicitly permits a solar-only charge
KRS 278.466(5) lets each supplier recover "all costs necessary to serve its eligible customer-generators, including but not limited to fixed and demand-based costs, without regard for the rate structure for customers who are not eligible customer-generators." If a monthly charge appears that your neighbor does not pay, this is the authority for it.
Credits are dollars, not kilowatt hours, and they do not come back
Compensation is "in the form of a dollar-denominated bill credit", carried to the next bill. It is not transferable between customers or premises, and "if an eligible customer-generator closes his or her account, no cash refund for accumulated credits shall be paid."
Older systems keep one for one for twenty-five years, and it survives a sale
For facilities in service before the Commission’s initial net metering order, the original tariff terms including "the one-to-one (1:1) kilowatt-hour denominated energy credit" stay in place for twenty-five years "regardless of whether the premises are sold or conveyed". If you are buying a Kentucky house with older solar on it, that is an asset with a date on it. Ask for the interconnection date in writing.
The extra meter is yours to pay for
The supplier provides a standard bidirectional meter. "Any additional meter, meters, or distribution upgrades needed to monitor the flow in each direction shall be installed at the customer-generator’s expense."

From Kentucky Power’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Kentucky Power net metering questions

Does Kentucky Power offer one for one net metering?
No. The Commission set this utility's export credit at 9.746 cents a kilowatt hour in Case No. 2025-00257, effective 1 March 2026. It buys power from you at that rate and sells it back at 15.385 cents, and the credit can only be applied to the energy charge and to riders billed per kilowatt hour, so it never touches the fixed monthly charge.
What does Kentucky Power pay for power sent back to the grid?
9.746 cents a kilowatt hour, set by the Commission. A dollar-denominated bill credit that carries to the next bill, is not transferable between customers or premises, and is not refunded when the account closes.
Do I need a battery with Kentucky Power?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Kentucky Power 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 Kentucky Power territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my Kentucky Power bill?
Sign in at kentuckypower.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 Kentucky Power?
Ask how much of the 1 percent ceiling is already used before anything else, because that is the question that decides whether you can join at all. This figure is seven months old and replaced a lower one, so anything an installer quotes from an older sheet is out of date. Confirm the current credit in writing too: this rate is a Commission docket rather than a law, two of the four Kentucky rates moved in 2026, and yours can be reopened.