Otter Tail Power net metering in North Dakota
Parts of eastern North Dakota, including Jamestown and Devils Lake. A small North Dakota footprint of a utility whose main territory is in Minnesota, where the rules are considerably better.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 60K
What they credit you
4.871 cents a kilowatt hour for what you export
Published termsThis utility buys exported energy at 4.871 cents a kilowatt hour under Section 12.01 Small Power Producer Rider, Forty-third Revision, effective 1 June 2026. It sells you power at about 7.1 to 8.1 cents, so a kilowatt hour you use yourself is worth roughly three times one you send back. The fixed monthly charge stays on the bill either way.
- Month to month
- Settlement is in dollars on the monthly bill rather than a bank of kilowatt hours carried forward.
Published terms · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Installers serving Otter Tail customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
These are real companies operating in Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail bill
An average North Dakota 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 41639 kilowatt hours. A 1,029 kilowatt hour month against 1,316 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 287 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $145.29 to $0.00 at 14.12 cents per kilowatt hour.
North Dakota average household use, 1,029 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 14.12¢ 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.
Battery backup is mandatory
in Otter Tail territory.
Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail 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. North Dakota requires net metering only of its investor owned utilities and has among the lowest retail rates in the country, so both the credit and the bill it offsets are small. Size to daytime usage and check first which kind of utility you are on. Otter Tail sets its own limits. Ask Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail 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
Size this to what the house actually uses during daylight rather than to the roof, because self consumption is worth three times what export is worth here. The 4.871 cents is 4.571 cents of avoided cost plus a 0.300 cent solar renewable energy credit payment, and you only get that second part if the credits transfer. Confirm the current figure in writing before you sign: this rate is reset by filing, Case No. PU-26-51 is the one in force today, and North Dakota's fixed monthly charges are among the highest in the country, so they dominate the arithmetic on a small system.
What Otter Tail 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
- $20.50 a month, and the customer charge alone is not the floor
- How it is set
- This is the trap on Otter Tail’s sheet. Section 9.01 sets a "Customer Charge per Month: $17.00" and, separately, a "Facilities Charge per Month: $3.50" — then defines the floor as both together: "Monthly Minimum Bill: Customer + Facilities Charge". Anyone reading only the customer charge would understate it by $3.50 a month. A solar household adds the Small Power Producer metering charge of $1.33 a month on top, and $4.55 more if it asks for an optional production meter. Energy is 7.109 cents a kilowatt hour in summer and 8.070 cents in winter before riders.
Section 9.01 Residential Service N101, with Section 12.01 Small Power Producer Rider, Forty-third Revision, effective 1 June 2026 · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Applying to Otter Tail
What Otter Tail itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- The credit is built from three separate line items
- Section 12.01 prints them apart: Base Avoided Costs $0.04571 per kWh, Renewable Energy Credit $0.00096, and Solar Renewable Energy Credit $0.00300. A solar producer transferring its credits gets 4.571 plus 0.300, so 4.871 cents. Quoted as a single number it looks like one rate; it is three, and they are reviewed separately.
- There is a monthly charge just for being a producer
- "METERING CHARGE: $1.33 per month", and "OPTIONAL PRODUCTION METER CHARGE: $4.55 per month" if you want your own production metering. Both sit on top of the $20.50 minimum bill.
- The payment schedule is reviewed every year
- "The Customer will be compensated monthly for all Energy received from the SQF less the Customer charge. The schedule for these payments is subject to annual review." Nothing here is locked for the life of the system.
- A twelve month contract, and one hundred kilowatts
- The rider is "available to any Qualifying Facility not exceeding 100 kW of generating Capacity", and "the minimum term of the contract is 12 months."
- Only the investor owned utilities have to offer it
- Net metering is available to customers of all investor owned utilities. At the municipal systems and the cooperatives it is optional, and the cooperatives cover much of the state.
- Most customers are on net billing, not one for one
- Excess energy is generally credited at a rate well below retail rather than netted against consumption at retail.
- Low retail rates make the arithmetic harder
- North Dakota has among the cheapest residential electricity in the country. The bill a system offsets is small before any credit rate is applied.
- Ask what kind of utility you are on first
- The answer to every other question depends on it. A cooperative here is not obliged to offer anything.
From Otter Tail’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Otter Tail net metering questions
- Does Otter Tail offer one for one net metering?
- No. This utility buys exported energy at 4.871 cents a kilowatt hour under Section 12.01 Small Power Producer Rider, Forty-third Revision, effective 1 June 2026. It sells you power at about 7.1 to 8.1 cents, so a kilowatt hour you use yourself is worth roughly three times one you send back. The fixed monthly charge stays on the bill either way.
- What does Otter Tail pay for power sent back to the grid?
- 4.871 cents a kilowatt hour for what you export. Settlement is in dollars on the monthly bill rather than a bank of kilowatt hours carried forward.
- Do I need a battery with Otter Tail?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my Otter Tail bill?
- Sign in at otpco.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 Otter Tail?
- Size this to what the house actually uses during daylight rather than to the roof, because self consumption is worth three times what export is worth here. The 4.871 cents is 4.571 cents of avoided cost plus a 0.300 cent solar renewable energy credit payment, and you only get that second part if the credits transfer. Confirm the current figure in writing before you sign: this rate is reset by filing, Case No. PU-26-51 is the one in force today, and North Dakota's fixed monthly charges are among the highest in the country, so they dominate the arithmetic on a small system.