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Net Metering Program
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Montana-Dakota Utilities net metering in Montana

Eastern Montana, including Miles City, Glendive and Sidney. A small Montana footprint of a utility that also serves the Dakotas and Wyoming under different rules.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
30K

What they credit you

One for one, until the anniversary takes it

Published terms

Rate 92 is genuine net metering: your exports are credited as kilowatt hours, not dollars, and roll forward month to month against whatever you later use. The catch is annual rather than monthly — whatever is still banked on your twelve month anniversary is granted to MDU with no payment at all.

Month to month
Kilowatt hour credits carry month to month for up to twelve months, and because they are kilowatt hours rather than dollars they hold their value into the higher summer rate.
Once a year
There is no payout. Unused credit at the end of your chosen twelve month period is forfeited to the company outright.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Installers serving MDU 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 MDU territory, 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 MDU bill

An average Montana 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$128.99
$128.99
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 41688 kilowatt hours. A 852 kilowatt hour month against 1,090 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 238 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $128.99 to $0.00 at 15.14 cents per kilowatt hour.

Montana average household use, 852 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.14¢ 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

Pick your twelve month start date deliberately: the tariff lets you choose 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, and for a winter-peaking house 1 October banks the summer and gives you the winter to spend it. Then size the array to your own annual use, because anything above it is surrendered every year rather than paid for. Ask what the Basic Service Charge will be when the current rate case ends, since today’s figure carries a 22.008% interim increase that is refundable with interest if the Commission sets lower permanent rates.

What MDU 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
$5.78 a month as filed, about $7.05 with the interim increase
How it is set
Rate 10 prices the fixed charge by the day, not the month: "Basic Service Charge: $0.19 per day", which is $5.78 across an average month. It then makes that the floor in a line of its own - "MINIMUM BILL: Basic Service Charge" - and Rate 92 keeps it in place for solar customers rather than adding a solar-only charge. What the tariff does not show in that number is the open rate case: a separate line adds an "Interim Rate Increase: 22.008% of amount billed under Basic Service Charge, Energy Charge and Demand Charge", taking the real floor to about $7.05, with a 12.6681% tax tracker on top of that. Montana interim rates are refundable with interest if the Commission ultimately sets lower permanent ones, so this figure is genuinely provisional.

Residential Electric Service Rate 10, 1st Revised Sheet No. 3, effective 1 April 2026, Docket No. 2025.09.072 · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Applying to MDU

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

This is a real kilowatt hour credit, not a dollar credit
Rate 92 credits the net kilowatt hours themselves: "If the energy supplied by the customer generator exceeds the amount of energy supplied by the Company, the net Kwh shall be credited to the customer’s next monthly bill." Because it is denominated in kilowatt hours rather than dollars, a unit banked in cheap October is worth the summer rate when you spend it in July.
And every year the bank is emptied into the company
"At the end of the 12-month period any unused Kwh credit accumulated during the previous 12-months will be granted to the Company with no compensation to the customer." An oversized array here is a gift, annually.
You choose when the year ends, from four dates, and it matters
"The customer shall designate the start date of the 12-month billing period as January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1." For a winter-peaking Montana household, starting on 1 October banks the whole following summer and gives you the winter after it to spend the credit before anything is forfeited. Starting on 1 April does the opposite. This is the single most valuable decision on the application form and nobody points it out.
Fifty kilowatts, one system per meter, and no pooling
Rate 92 allows "a small generator facility whose capacity does not exceed 50 Kw". But: "There should only be one net metering system installed per each metered service" and "Neither customers, customer accounts or services, nor meters may be aggregated for purposes of net metering." A house and a shop on separate meters cannot share production.
A million dollars of liability cover, and the fees are yours
The interconnection agreement requires "General Liability Insurance with limits not less than $1,000,000" with certificates furnished on signing. Application fees are $50 for Level 1 and $200 for Level 2, non-refundable, and "the costs associated with the interconnection application and agreement are the responsibility of the interconnection applicant", including any studies and any construction needed to accommodate you.
MDU does not have to build anything to fit you in
Rate 96: "Existing capacity or construction of capacity by the Company on its EDS is not required to accommodate small generator facilities." A fast-track application can also fail on screens that have nothing to do with your roof, such as aggregate generation exceeding 15% of the line section peak load.
A visible, lockable disconnect within ten feet of the meter, at your cost
It is "installed, owned, and maintained by the customer", "must allow for a visible break, must have the ability to be locked open, and must be accessible to the Company at all times", and "the location shall be within ten (10) feet of the metered service point unless special permission is granted".

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

MDU net metering questions

Does MDU offer one for one net metering?
Yes. Rate 92 is genuine net metering: your exports are credited as kilowatt hours, not dollars, and roll forward month to month against whatever you later use. The catch is annual rather than monthly — whatever is still banked on your twelve month anniversary is granted to MDU with no payment at all. Kilowatt hour credits carry month to month for up to twelve months, and because they are kilowatt hours rather than dollars they hold their value into the higher summer rate.
What does MDU pay for power sent back to the grid?
One for one, until the anniversary takes it. There is no payout. Unused credit at the end of your chosen twelve month period is forfeited to the company outright.
Do I need a battery with MDU?
Not for the economics. MDU 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 MDU bill?
Sign in at montana-dakota.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 MDU?
Pick your twelve month start date deliberately: the tariff lets you choose 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, and for a winter-peaking house 1 October banks the summer and gives you the winter to spend it. Then size the array to your own annual use, because anything above it is surrendered every year rather than paid for. Ask what the Basic Service Charge will be when the current rate case ends, since today’s figure carries a 22.008% interim increase that is refundable with interest if the Commission sets lower permanent rates.