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Net Metering Program
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Southwestern Public Service net metering in New Mexico

Eastern New Mexico, including Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis and Portales. An Xcel Energy company serving the eastern plains, with its own New Mexico tariffs.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
120K

What they credit you

Netted monthly; surplus at the SPP real-time market price

Published terms

Rate No. 4 nets a Small QF (10 kW or less) month by month on your ordinary residential rate. If the system makes more than the grid supplies in a billing period, SPS credits the next bill “by crediting or paying the QF for the net energy supplied to Company at the applicable monthly energy rate set forth in this Tariff”. For Small QFs that rate is the Southwest Power Pool real-time locational marginal price at the electrically closest settlement location, settled hourly and multiplied by a loss factor, so no fixed cents figure exists.

Month to month
Each month’s surplus is credited or paid on the next bill.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-07 · source

Installers serving SPS 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 SPS 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 SPS 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 readingkWh
Energy charge$98.49
$98.49
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 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.

What your installer should be telling you

The credit is a wholesale market price that moves hour by hour and can be very low at midday in spring, when a roof produces most. Ask SPS what the real-time price at your settlement location averaged over the last twelve months, and size the system to what the house uses.

What SPS 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
$11.20 a month
How it is set
SPS, Xcel Energy’s company in eastern New Mexico, calls it a Service Availability Charge, and its Sixteenth Revised Rate No. 1, Residential Service, sets it at $11.20 a month for all areas it serves in the state. There is no minimum-bill clause beyond a requirement to take service for twelve consecutive months. Energy is 9.3683 cents a kilowatt hour from October to May and 11.2420 cents from June to September, and a 2026 Renewable Portfolio Standard Cost Rider is added per kilowatt hour on top, so it falls away with the energy rather than lifting the floor. One line on the same sheet matters more to a solar household than the charge: “The Alternate Time of Use Rider is not available to customers with customer owned generation.” That rider prices off-peak power at 7.9057 cents and the summer weekday afternoon at 28.1616 cents, and a household with panels cannot choose it. The standard flat rate is what a solar customer is on. Service under this schedule is limited to 15 kW of capacity.

Southwestern Public Service Company, Sixteenth Revised Rate No. 1, Residential Service (New Mexico), Advice Notice No. 319, listed by Xcel Energy as its current New Mexico residential tariff; RPS rider per NMPRC Case 25-00027-UT · checked 2026-10-01 · source

SPS net metering questions

Does SPS offer one for one net metering?
Yes. Rate No. 4 nets a Small QF (10 kW or less) month by month on your ordinary residential rate. If the system makes more than the grid supplies in a billing period, SPS credits the next bill “by crediting or paying the QF for the net energy supplied to Company at the applicable monthly energy rate set forth in this Tariff”. For Small QFs that rate is the Southwest Power Pool real-time locational marginal price at the electrically closest settlement location, settled hourly and multiplied by a loss factor, so no fixed cents figure exists. Each month’s surplus is credited or paid on the next bill.
What does SPS pay for power sent back to the grid?
Netted monthly; surplus at the SPP real-time market price.
Do I need a battery with SPS?
Not for the economics. SPS 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 SPS 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 SPS?
The credit is a wholesale market price that moves hour by hour and can be very low at midday in spring, when a roof produces most. Ask SPS what the real-time price at your settlement location averaged over the last twelve months, and size the system to what the house uses.