El Paso Electric net metering in New Mexico
Southern New Mexico, including Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley. The same company that serves far west Texas, operating here under New Mexico rules. Its crediting is not the same as PNM’s and the difference is not small.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 110K
What they credit you
Bought at a monthly purchased-power rate
Published termsExcess energy is credited at El Paso Electric’s applicable Rate 16 purchased-power rate, which changes monthly and is generally below the retail rate.
- Month to month
- Credited against the bill rather than banked as kilowatt hours.
Published terms · checked 2026-09-05 · source
Installers serving El Paso Electric customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
- Affordable SolarLocal installerBBB A+, accredited4.9371 GoogleLong established Albuquerque solar contractor.All of New MexicoSelect this installer
- Positive Energy SolarLocal installerBBB A+, accredited4.9172 GoogleAlbuquerque installer working across New Mexico, in both PNM and El Paso Electric territory.All of New MexicoSelect this installer
- SunrunLocal installerBattery19 years tradingBBB A+, accreditedThe largest residential solar and home battery company in the United States, trading since 2007 and operating in twenty states.All of New MexicoSelect this installer
These are real companies operating in El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric bill
An average New Mexico 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 41744 kilowatt hours. A 654 kilowatt hour month against 836 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 182 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $98.49 to $0.00 at 15.06 cents per kilowatt hour.
New Mexico average household use, 654 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.06¢ 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 El Paso Electric territory.
El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric 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. New Mexico’s rule gives systems of 10 kW or less their own section, so 10 kW is the line to design against: above it a system is treated as a qualifying facility and paid avoided cost rather than banked as kilowatt hours. El Paso Electric sets its own limits. Ask El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric 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 last twelve months of Rate 16 values, not a single month. It moves, and a quote built on a good month is not a forecast.
What El Paso Electric 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
- $7.00 a month today, with $14.36 and then $18.89 proposed
- How it is set
- El Paso Electric’s New Mexico tariff is separate from its Texas one, and the charge is lower: the Fourteenth Revised Rate No. 01 sets a Customer Charge of $7.00 per meter per month, the sheet EPE currently publishes for New Mexico. Energy above it is 7.035 cents a kilowatt hour for the first 600 in summer, 10.876 cents above that, and 5.816 cents for all use from October to May. The sheet refers to a Monthly Minimum Charge Provision below which incentive credits cannot take a bill, but does not set it out here. Do not plan around $7.00 lasting. EPE has asked the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, in Case 25-00082, to raise it to $14.36 from 1 January 2027 and to $18.89 from 1 October 2027, with energy rising alongside — the first 600 summer kilowatt hours from 7.035 cents to 13.045 cents across the two phases. EPE’s own notice puts the effect on a 750 kWh summer bill at 57 percent, about $55 a month more. These are proposals: the public hearing was set for 21 September to 2 October 2026, and the Commission had not ruled when this was read on 1 October. Both halves bear on solar in opposite directions. Higher energy rates make every kilowatt hour a system displaces worth more; a fixed charge more than two and a half times today’s is a floor no system touches. The proposal also includes a Low-Income Rider that would credit the customer charge dollar for dollar for qualifying households.
El Paso Electric Company, Fourteenth Revised Rate No. 01, Residential Service Rate (New Mexico), Advice Notice 289, as linked from EPE’s New Mexico rate tariffs page; proposed rates from the NMPRC Notice to EPE Customers in Case 25-00082, Advice Notice 317 · checked 2026-10-01 · source
Applying to El Paso Electric
What El Paso Electric itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Exports are bought, not banked
- Excess electricity sent to the grid is credited at El Paso Electric’s applicable Rate 16 purchased-power rate rather than saved as kilowatt hours.
- That rate changes every month
- Rate 16 can change monthly and is generally lower than the full retail rate, so the value of an exported kilowatt hour here is neither fixed nor equal to what you pay.
- Do not use a PNM figure for an El Paso Electric address
- PNM banks kilowatt hour credits that do not expire. El Paso Electric buys exports at a monthly purchased-power rate. They are different arrangements in the same state.
- Up to 25 kW has its own interconnection route
- El Paso Electric publishes a streamlined process for facilities up to 25 kW, which is the one a house normally uses.
From El Paso Electric’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source
El Paso Electric net metering questions
- Does El Paso Electric offer one for one net metering?
- No. Excess energy is credited at El Paso Electric’s applicable Rate 16 purchased-power rate, which changes monthly and is generally below the retail rate.
- What does El Paso Electric pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Bought at a monthly purchased-power rate. Credited against the bill rather than banked as kilowatt hours.
- Do I need a battery with El Paso Electric?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my El Paso Electric bill?
- Sign in at epelectric.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 El Paso Electric?
- Ask for the last twelve months of Rate 16 values, not a single month. It moves, and a quote built on a good month is not a forecast.