National Grid net metering in Massachusetts
North of Boston, Worcester County and the Merrimack Valley. The other large investor owned utility. Same 25 kW threshold, different retail rate, so an exported kilowatt hour is worth a different amount here.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 1.3M
What they credit you
Surplus at about 33.5 cents a kWh against 40 to buy
Published termsInside each billing month usage nets one for one. A month’s net surplus earns a dollar credit priced at basic service, distribution, transmission and transition. On Rate R-1 that leaves out 6.464 cents a kilowatt hour of efficiency, renewable energy, solar program, EV program and net metering recovery charges, the last of them 2.451 cents on its own. With the fixed basic service price for August 2026 to January 2027, the credit is about 33.5 cents against 40.0 cents to buy. It applies to systems up to 25 kW AC; a larger system serving its own site earns 60% of the same charges.
- Month to month
- The dollar credit carries forward from bill to bill with no expiry date in the tariff; only Class III facilities, over 1 MW, can be paid in cash.
Published terms · checked 2026-10-02 · source
Installers serving National Grid 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 MassachusettsSelect this installer
- Trinity SolarLocal installerBattery32 years tradingBBB A+, accredited4.41,682 GoogleFamily owned since 1994 and the largest privately held residential solar installer in the country, working across the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.All of MassachusettsSelect this installer
- SunrunLocal installerBattery19 years tradingBBB A+, accreditedThe largest residential solar and home battery company in the United States, trading since 2007 and operating in twenty states.All of MassachusettsSelect this installer
These are real companies operating in National Grid 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 National Grid bill
An average Massachusetts 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 41767 kilowatt hours. A 570 kilowatt hour month against 729 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 159 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $168.78 to $0.00 at 29.61 cents per kilowatt hour.
Massachusetts average household use, 570 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 29.61¢ 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.
What your installer should be telling you
Ask National Grid how a credit balance is handled if you close the account, and move it with a Schedule Z before you do. The supply part of the credit is National Grid’s basic service rate, which resets every 1 February and 1 August, whoever supplies your power.
What National Grid 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
- $10.00 a month
- How it is set
- Rate R-1 states that the monthly minimum charge shall be the monthly Customer Charge, and then gives no figure at all: the dollars live in a second document, the Summary of Electric Service Rates, which puts the Customer Charge at $10.00. Read the rate schedule on its own and you get the rule without the number.
Rate R-1, M.D.P.U. No. 1634, with the figure in the Summary of Electric Delivery Service Rates M.D.P.U. No. 1-26-I, effective 1 October 2026 · checked 2026-10-02 · source
Applying to National Grid
What National Grid itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Up to 25 kW AC a house keeps the higher credit
- All three tariffs treat a system up to 25 kW AC as cap exempt and pay it Standard Net Metering Credits for as long as it runs. The utilities began applying that line on 1 February 2025; before it, the exemption stopped at 10 kW on a single-phase circuit. A quote that treats 10 kW as the ceiling is out of date.
- The surplus is credited near retail, not at it
- Inside a billing month, what the panels make offsets what you use one for one. Only the month’s net surplus earns a dollar credit, priced at the basic service, distribution, transmission and transition charges. The energy efficiency, renewable energy, solar program and net metering recovery charges are left out, and the supply part is the utility’s basic service rate even if a town aggregation or a competitive supplier sells you power.
- Above 25 kW the credit drops to 60%
- A larger system serving its own site is still outside the caps, but its surplus earns Market Net Metering Credits at 60% of the same charges. The step is not gradual, so a design that crosses 25 kW AC for a small gain in output can lose on value.
- SMART pays 3 cents on every kWh generated, for 20 years
- Under SMART 3.0 a system up to 25 kW AC qualified in program year 2026 is paid a flat $0.03 for every kilowatt hour it generates, or $0.06 if it qualifies as low income, fixed for 20 years from its incentive start date. It is paid on generation rather than exports, so it stacks with self consumption, and the utility keeps the renewable energy certificates in return. DOER sets the flat rate each program year.
- More than forty municipal light plants are outside all of this
- Massachusetts has an unusually large number of municipal utilities, and they are not bound by the state net metering requirement. If your bill comes from a town light department, none of the above is your rule.
From National Grid’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-02 · source
National Grid net metering questions
- Does National Grid offer one for one net metering?
- Yes. Inside each billing month usage nets one for one. A month’s net surplus earns a dollar credit priced at basic service, distribution, transmission and transition. On Rate R-1 that leaves out 6.464 cents a kilowatt hour of efficiency, renewable energy, solar program, EV program and net metering recovery charges, the last of them 2.451 cents on its own. With the fixed basic service price for August 2026 to January 2027, the credit is about 33.5 cents against 40.0 cents to buy. It applies to systems up to 25 kW AC; a larger system serving its own site earns 60% of the same charges. The dollar credit carries forward from bill to bill with no expiry date in the tariff; only Class III facilities, over 1 MW, can be paid in cash.
- What does National Grid pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Surplus at about 33.5 cents a kWh against 40 to buy.
- Do I need a battery with National Grid?
- Not for the economics. National Grid credits exports at the retail rate, so power you send out during the day comes back at the same value after dark without storage. A battery is still worth considering for outages during hurricane season, but it is an upgrade here rather than a requirement.
- How do I find my National Grid bill?
- Sign in at nationalgridus.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 National Grid?
- Ask National Grid how a credit balance is handled if you close the account, and move it with a Schedule Z before you do. The supply part of the credit is National Grid’s basic service rate, which resets every 1 February and 1 August, whoever supplies your power.