Lincoln Electric System
Lincoln and the surrounding area. Municipally owned, administered by an appointed board answering to the city council.
- Type
- Municipal
- Accounts
- 145K
What they credit you
Avoided cost, carried forward as dollars
Set by state ruleNet excess generation is credited at the utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply, as monetary credits carried forward against subsequent bills, for systems up to 25 kW.
- Month to month
- Monetary credits carried forward indefinitely against later bills.
Set by undefined · checked 2026-09-05 · source
Battery backup is mandatory
in LES territory.
LES 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 LES 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. Nebraska caps net metering eligibility at 25 kW and credits exports at avoided cost, so the design question is how much of your own production you can use rather than how much roof you have. LES sets its own limits. Ask LES 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 LES 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
Ask for the current avoided cost figure in writing, and ask when the board next reviews it.
LES is investor owned, so Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 70-2001 to 70-2004 applies and these terms are set by the state rather than by a board that can revise them. That is the strongest position a homeowner can be in on net metering.
Applying to LES
What LES itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Every utility in Nebraska is publicly owned
- The only state in the country with no investor owned electric utility. Your provider is a public power district, a municipal system or a cooperative, and its board is accountable to customers or to voters.
- The statute credits avoided cost
- Net excess generation is credited at a rate equal to the local distribution utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply during the billing period.
- Credits are dollars, and they carry forward
- The statute provides that monetary credits are carried forward from billing period to billing period and credited against retail bills in subsequent periods. There is no annual wipe.
- 25 kilowatts is the eligibility threshold
- Above it you are outside the statutory net metering arrangement and into whatever your utility offers instead. For a house it is rarely binding.
- You can attend the meeting
- Because the rate setter is a public board, the export rate is decided at a meeting you may attend and, in most districts, vote in. That is a genuinely different situation from a Commission docket.
From LES’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source
LES net metering questions
- Does LES offer one for one net metering?
- No. Net excess generation is credited at the utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply, as monetary credits carried forward against subsequent bills, for systems up to 25 kW.
- What does LES pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Avoided cost, carried forward as dollars. Monetary credits carried forward indefinitely against later bills.
- Do I need a battery with LES?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because LES 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 LES territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my LES bill?
- Sign in at les.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 LES?
- Ask for the current avoided cost figure in writing, and ask when the board next reviews it.
Installers serving LES customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
No installers listed for LES yet
Email us and we will find someone covering your area by hand.
Email us