Xcel Energy net metering in North Dakota
Eastern North Dakota, including Fargo, Grand Forks and Wahpeton. An investor owned utility, so net metering is required of it rather than optional.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 95K
What they credit you
3.646 cents a kilowatt hour for what you export
Published termsThis utility buys exported energy at 3.646 cents a kilowatt hour under Net Energy Billing Service, Rate Code D50, 18th Revised Sheet No. 9-2, effective 1 March 2026. It sells you power at about 8 to 9.5 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 Xcel customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
These are real companies operating in Xcel 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 Xcel 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 Xcel territory.
Xcel 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 Xcel 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. Xcel sets its own limits. Ask Xcel 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 Xcel 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 sheet that sets this rate is a redline: it raised the payment from 3.270 cents to 3.646 cents this March, which tells you the number moves. Confirm the current figure in writing before you sign: this rate is reset by filing, Case No. PU-26-018 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 Xcel 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
- $21.50 a month, the highest fixed charge in the state
- How it is set
- The Residential Service sheet sets a Customer Charge of $21.50 a month, the same figure for standard and electric space heating service and for overhead or underground. Unusually, the sheet states no minimum-bill clause at all, which is a deliberate contrast within Xcel’s own rate book — other schedules in the same book do carry one. Energy is 9.536 cents a kilowatt hour from June to September and 7.937 cents from October to May, with a fuel rider, a transmission cost rider of 0.3066 cents and a renewable energy rider of 0.1049 cents on top.
Residential Service, NDPSC No. 2, 12th Revised Sheet No. 5-1, effective 1 May 2026 · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Applying to Xcel
What Xcel itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- 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 Xcel’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Xcel net metering questions
- Does Xcel offer one for one net metering?
- No. This utility buys exported energy at 3.646 cents a kilowatt hour under Net Energy Billing Service, Rate Code D50, 18th Revised Sheet No. 9-2, effective 1 March 2026. It sells you power at about 8 to 9.5 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 Xcel pay for power sent back to the grid?
- 3.646 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 Xcel?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Xcel 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 Xcel territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my Xcel bill?
- Sign in at xcelenergy.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 Xcel?
- 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 sheet that sets this rate is a redline: it raised the payment from 3.270 cents to 3.646 cents this March, which tells you the number moves. Confirm the current figure in writing before you sign: this rate is reset by filing, Case No. PU-26-018 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.