Louisville Gas and Electric net metering in Kentucky

Applying to LG&E

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

The legacy rider is a real kilowatt hour, and it runs to 2046

Rider NMS-1 covers anything in service before 24 September 2021 and credits "a kWh-denominated electricity credit only, not a monetary credit" - genuine one for one. The tariff says the company "will cease to provide service under this Standard Rate Rider on September 24, 2046", and transfers everyone to NMS-2 that day. If you are buying a house with older solar in this territory, ask for the in-service date.

Your credit cannot touch the fixed charge

NMS-2 pays 6.924 cents a kilowatt hour and states that "the dollar-denominated bill credit will be applied only to the energy charge and any riders that are based on a per kWh charge". The basic service charge is outside it, and the tariff makes that charge the minimum bill.

Twenty-five years of the rate structure, not of the rate

A customer-generator on a two-part rate "will be allowed to take service under a two-part rate structure for 25 years". That protects the shape of the bill, not the number: the credit itself is a Commission docket and can be reopened.

Credits die with the account

Unused excess billing-period credits "end with Customer’s account and are not transferrable between Customers or locations". On a joint account they survive as long as one holder stays at the same address.

Forty-five kilowatts, and a disconnect switch where they ask for one

The rider caps the facility at 45 kW. The interconnection guidelines let the company require an external, visible-break, padlockable disconnect switch adjacent to the meter, accessible at all times, though it may waive that at its sole discretion case by case.

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 LG&E’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-21 · source