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Net Metering Program
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Portland General Electric net metering in Oregon

Portland and the northern Willamette Valley, including Salem, Beaverton and Gresham. The largest utility in the state.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
950K

What they credit you

Full retail per kWh, cleared each March to low-income aid

Published terms

Schedule 203 bills a month of net use on your chosen rate. In a month of Excess Generation you pay the Basic Charge and the excess is credited on the next bill under OAR 860-039-0055(1), at the full retail rate for every charge billed per kilowatt hour. On a time-of-use rate, generation is credited first in the period it was made, then to the highest-priced period.

Month to month
Excess kilowatt hour credits carry month to month through the annual billing cycle.
Once a year
The cycle runs from the April billing period to the end of the March billing period. Credits left then are transferred to PGE’s low-income assistance program at the average annual Schedule 201 avoided cost rate and reset to zero.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-07 · source

Installers serving PGE 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 PGE 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 PGE bill

An average Oregon 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$143.94
$143.94
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 41680 kilowatt hours. A 882 kilowatt hour month against 1,128 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 246 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $143.94 to $0.00 at 16.32 cents per kilowatt hour.

Oregon average household use, 882 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 16.32¢ 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

Residential systems qualify up to 25 kW. Size to your own annual usage: anything still banked after the March bill goes to low-income assistance, not to you.

What PGE 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
$13.00 a month for a house, $10.00 in a multi-family home
How it is set
Schedule 7 splits the Basic Charge by dwelling rather than by usage: “Single-Family Home $13.00, Multi-Family Home $10.00”, charged per service point. The schedule states no minimum clause anywhere, so nothing is stacked above the Basic Charge — everything else on the default plan is per kilowatt hour: 0.805 cents transmission and related services, 6.941 cents distribution and 3.543 cents energy, about 11.3 cents all in. Nothing recurring is added for generating. Schedule 203, Net Metering Service, carries fees rather than a monthly charge, and they are one-off interconnection application fees set by state rule rather than by PGE: under OAR 860-039-0045, $50.00 plus $1.00 per kW for a Level 2 review and $100.00 plus $2.00 per kW for a Level 3, plus the reasonable costs of any additional engineering. On a 8 kW array a Level 2 review is $58.00, paid once. Budget those with the array rather than into the monthly bill, and note that the review level is decided by the interconnection, not chosen by you.

Schedule 7, Residential Service, P.U.C. Oregon No. E-19, Third Revision of Sheet No. 7-1, effective for service on and after 8 July 2026; interconnection fees at Schedule 203, Net Metering Service, Original Sheet No. 203-3 · checked 2026-09-30 · source

Applying to PGE

What PGE itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.

One for one on every per-kWh charge
OAR 860-039-0055(1) applies a month’s excess kilowatt hours to the next bill at the full retail rate for each rate component billed per kilowatt hour. The Basic Charge is still paid every month.
The year ends with the March bill
Unless you and the utility agree otherwise, the annual billing cycle ends with the March billing month, so credit built up over the summer is still available through the winter.
A leftover balance goes to low-income assistance
Unused credit at the end of the cycle is transferred to the utility’s low-income assistance program, valued at its average annual avoided cost rate. OAR 860-039-0060(2) says the customer may not elect to receive a credit or payment for it.
25 kW for a house
Both PGE’s Schedule 203 and Pacific Power’s Schedule 135 cover residential systems of 25 kW or less.
Neighboring meters can share
On request, with sixty days’ notice, the utility will aggregate the generating meter with other meters on the same or contiguous property served by the same primary feeder, in a rank order you choose.

From PGE’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-07 · source

PGE net metering questions

Does PGE offer one for one net metering?
Yes. Schedule 203 bills a month of net use on your chosen rate. In a month of Excess Generation you pay the Basic Charge and the excess is credited on the next bill under OAR 860-039-0055(1), at the full retail rate for every charge billed per kilowatt hour. On a time-of-use rate, generation is credited first in the period it was made, then to the highest-priced period. Excess kilowatt hour credits carry month to month through the annual billing cycle.
What does PGE pay for power sent back to the grid?
Full retail per kWh, cleared each March to low-income aid. The cycle runs from the April billing period to the end of the March billing period. Credits left then are transferred to PGE’s low-income assistance program at the average annual Schedule 201 avoided cost rate and reset to zero.
Do I need a battery with PGE?
Not for the economics. PGE 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 PGE bill?
Sign in at portlandgeneral.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 PGE?
Residential systems qualify up to 25 kW. Size to your own annual usage: anything still banked after the March bill goes to low-income assistance, not to you.