Skip to content
Net Metering Program
← Back to the schedule

Ameren Missouri net metering in Missouri

Eastern Missouri, including St Louis, Jefferson City and Cape Girardeau. Pays the highest surplus rate of Missouri’s two large utilities, and nets within each time-of-use period on its Saver rates.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
1.2M

What they credit you

3.84 cents in summer, 3.39 in winter; credits expire at 12 months

Published terms

Under Ameren Missouri’s net metering tariff (7th Revised Sheet No. 171, effective 1 June 2026), usage is netted within each billing period, or within each time-of-use period on the Saver rates, and the net surplus is credited at the avoided fuel cost: 3.84 cents a kWh from June to September and 3.39 cents from October to May.

Month to month
Credits carry forward but expire without compensation twelve months after issue, or when you disconnect.
Once a year
None; unused credit lapses.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-02 · source

Installers serving Ameren 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 Ameren 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 Ameren bill

An average Missouri 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$162.36
$162.36
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 41647 kilowatt hours. A 1,001 kilowatt hour month against 1,280 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 279 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $162.36 to $0.00 at 16.22 cents per kilowatt hour.

Missouri average household use, 1,001 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 16.22¢ 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.

Ameren requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in Ameren territory.

Ameren 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 Ameren 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. Missouri caps eligible systems at 100 kW and expires unused credits after twelve months, so a bank built over one summer has to be spent within the year. Size to your own annual usage. Ameren sets its own limits. Ask Ameren 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 Ameren 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

Net metering does not remove the customer charge, and it cannot be combined with Ameren’s Optional Time-of-Day rates. The rates are updated in odd-numbered years, usually from 15 February.

What Ameren 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
$9.19 a month, and it is two charges rather than one
How it is set
Service Classification No. 1(M), Residential Anytime Service, is the default residential rate and it sets two fixed monthly items, not one: “Customer Charge - per month $9.00” and, directly beneath it, “Low-Income Pilot Program Charge – per month $0.19”. Both are charged in summer and winter alike, so the fixed part of an Ameren Missouri bill is $9.19 and quoting the customer charge on its own understates it. The schedule states no minimum clause at all, so there is no floor above those charges — everything else moves with usage: 15.60 cents a kilowatt hour from June through September, and 10.62 cents for the first 750 kWh then 7.14 cents above it from October through May. Nothing extra is billed for generating. The Electric Power Purchases from Qualified Net Metering Units sheet settles that in one sentence — the customer-generator “shall be responsible for all other bill components charged to similarly situated customers that are not Customer-Generators” — so a solar household pays the same $9.19 as a neighbor without panels. One thing to check on your own bill: 1(M) applies to advanced-meter customers only “until such time that the Evening/Morning Saver rate becomes applicable by its terms”, so a time-of-use rate can take over, and which rate you are on changes the arithmetic above the fixed charge.

Service Classification No. 1(M), Residential Anytime Service, Mo.P.S.C. Schedule No. 6, 8th Revised Sheet No. 54, effective 1 June 2025 pursuant to Mo.P.S.C. Case ER-2024-0319; net metering terms at 7th Revised Sheet No. 171, effective 1 June 2026 · checked 2026-09-30 · source

Applying to Ameren

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

The statute defines what you are paid, in its own words
Avoided fuel cost means the incremental costs to the utility of electric energy it would generate itself or purchase from another source. It is the floor the statute sets, not a ceiling on what a utility may offer.
Credits expire after twelve months
A surplus banked over the summer must be used within the year. There is no payout at the end, so the credit simply lapses.
What a month’s surplus is worth
Usage is netted kilowatt hour for kilowatt hour within each billing period. The net surplus is credited at each company’s avoided fuel cost: Ameren Missouri 3.84 cents a kWh from June to September and 3.39 cents otherwise; Evergy Missouri Metro 1.90 cents; Evergy Missouri West 1.98 cents.
Time-of-use changes the netting
On Ameren’s Smart Saver, Overnight Saver and Ultimate Saver rates, and on Evergy’s time-of-use plans, netting is done within each time-of-use period, so midday exports cannot cancel evening use. Ameren also bars net metering from its older Optional Time-of-Day rates.
100 kW is the eligibility ceiling
Far above what a house needs, so the statute is not what limits your system. The twelve month credit clock is.

From Ameren’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-02 · source

Ameren net metering questions

Does Ameren offer one for one net metering?
No. Under Ameren Missouri’s net metering tariff (7th Revised Sheet No. 171, effective 1 June 2026), usage is netted within each billing period, or within each time-of-use period on the Saver rates, and the net surplus is credited at the avoided fuel cost: 3.84 cents a kWh from June to September and 3.39 cents from October to May.
What does Ameren pay for power sent back to the grid?
3.84 cents in summer, 3.39 in winter; credits expire at 12 months. None; unused credit lapses.
Do I need a battery with Ameren?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Ameren 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 Ameren territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my Ameren bill?
Sign in at ameren.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 Ameren?
Net metering does not remove the customer charge, and it cannot be combined with Ameren’s Optional Time-of-Day rates. The rates are updated in odd-numbered years, usually from 15 February.