NorthWestern Energy net metering in South Dakota
Eastern South Dakota, including Aberdeen, Huron and Yankton. The same company that dominates Montana, where net metering is required by law. South Dakota has an interconnection rule but no net metering rule.
- Type
- Investor owned
- Accounts
- 63K
What they credit you
Exports pay 2.547 cents, on a rate that falls as you use more
Published termsNorthWestern does not offer net metering in South Dakota, because South Dakota does not require it. Its Small Qualifying Facility Rider buys exported energy at 2.547 cents a kilowatt hour. Power your house uses as it is produced is netted instantly and keeps its full retail value — but the residential rate is a declining block falling to 3.565 cents above 1,200 kilowatt hours, so for a heavy user the units solar displaces first are worth little more than exporting them.
- Month to month
- None. Energy delivered is compensated on each monthly bill rather than banked as credit.
Published terms · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Installers serving NorthWestern customers
Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.
These are real companies operating in NorthWestern 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 NorthWestern bill
An average South 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 41649 kilowatt hours. A 994 kilowatt hour month against 1,271 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 277 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $152.68 to $0.00 at 15.36 cents per kilowatt hour.
South Dakota average household use, 994 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.36¢ 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 NorthWestern territory.
NorthWestern 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 NorthWestern 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. South Dakota sets no rule on what an exported kilowatt hour is worth, so your utility’s filed tariff is the only answer. It does set rules on how you connect: a normal rooftop array is a Tier 1 interconnection, the application fee is $50, and the Commission forbids a utility from adding requirements to a Tier 1 request. Size the system around what your own house will use as it is produced, because that part is worth the full retail rate whatever the export rate does. NorthWestern sets its own limits. Ask NorthWestern 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 NorthWestern 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 what block your house actually finishes each month in, because that is what your solar is worth. The residential rate falls to 3.565 cents above 1,200 kilowatt hours and solar cuts the bill from the top block downward, so a heavy user can find the saving and the 2.547 cent export rate almost the same number. Get the capacity payment in writing before you count it: $4.29 a kilowatt for solar is paid only in June through September, and only if the array delivers at a 65 percent on peak capacity factor. Budget the rider’s $2.00 customer charge on top of the $7.00 on Rate No. 10, and note that the tariff binds you for twelve months while making the rate "subject to annual review."
What NorthWestern 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, or $9.00 with solar
- How it is set
- Residential Service Rate No. 10 sets a Customer Charge of $7.00 per meter per month and prints "Minimum Charge $7.00" directly beneath the energy blocks. The energy charge declines as you use more: 11.186 cents for the first 200 kilowatt hours, 11.004 cents for the next 600, 9.913 cents for the next 200, 7.909 cents for the next 200, and 3.565 cents for everything over 1,200. A household on the Small Qualifying Facility Rider also pays that rider’s own $2.00 customer charge, so the real floor for a solar home is $9.00. The Adjustment Clause and Tax Adjustment Clause are applied on top.
Residential Service Rate No. 10, Section 3, Eighteenth Revised Sheet No. 1, effective 10 January 2024, Docket EL23-016 · checked 2026-09-29 · source
Applying to NorthWestern
What NorthWestern itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Self consumption is netted instant by instant, and keeps its full value
- Rate No. 73 is available "to customers who purchase from the Company all electric load requirements which are in excess of the simultaneous output from the facility and sell to the Company all output which is in excess of the simultaneous load". What your house uses as the panels make it never reaches a meter. Only genuine surplus leaves at the export rate.
- The export rate is 2.547 cents
- Small Qualifying Facility Rider, Rate No. 73: "All kilowatt hours per kilowatt hour $0.02547". Rate No. 74 pays by time of delivery instead, $0.03241 on peak, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday excluding holidays, and $0.01948 off peak. Both were filed 26 February 2025 and took effect 1 April 2025.
- The residential rate falls as you use more, and that decides what your solar is worth
- Rate No. 10 is a declining block: 11.186 cents for the first 200 kilowatt hours, then 11.004, 9.913, 7.909, and 3.565 cents for everything over 1,200. Solar cuts your bill from the top block downward, so the first kilowatt hours it displaces are the cheapest ones you buy, not the most expensive. For a house using 1,500 a month, the saving on the units solar removes first is 3.565 cents — against 2.547 cents for exporting them. Those two numbers being so close is the whole economics of solar on this tariff.
- There is a solar capacity payment, and it is paid four months a year
- $4.29 per kilowatt for solar, against $2.79 for wind. Continuation Sheet 30.1 sets the conditions: the facility "must be able to deliver power at a minimum on-peak capacity factor of 65% in the months of June – September and must be able to deliver during the Company’s summer peak. Capacity payments will only be made in the months of June – September." Read on its own, the headline figure looks like a monthly payment all year. It is not. Ask NorthWestern in writing whether a fixed rooftop array clears the 65 percent test at all.
- A second customer charge of $2.00 a month
- The rider carries its own "Customer Charge $2.00" per meter per month, on top of the $7.00 on Rate No. 10. Fixed cost for a solar household is therefore $9.00 a month before a single kilowatt hour moves in either direction.
- You commit for a year; the price does not
- Sheet 30.1: "The minimum contracted term of service is 12 months. The rate contained in this tariff is subject to annual review." You are bound for twelve months while the rate you are paid can be revisited annually, and in a state with no net metering law there is nothing above the tariff holding it in place.
- There is no state net metering policy, and that was deliberate
- The Legislature has considered mandatory net metering a number of times and concluded it is not in the public interest. This is not a gap waiting to be filled.
- There is a state interconnection rule, even though there is no state payment rule
- Administrative Rule 20:10:36 governs how a small generator facility connects to a public utility’s distribution system. It says nothing at all about what you are paid. Keep the two questions apart: how you connect is regulated, what you earn is not.
- A normal rooftop array is Tier 1, and Tier 1 has a floor under it
- Tier 1 covers a facility that is inverter based, "10 kilowatts or less", using lab tested equipment and not connecting to a transmission line. The fee is $50, and the rule states that "a public utility may not impose additional requirements to a tier 1 interconnection application." Above 10 kilowatts you are in Tier 2, where the fee is $50 plus $1 a kilowatt up to $500.
- Ask for the export rate as a number and as a commitment
- Two separate questions: what will you be paid, and for how long is that guaranteed. In a state with no compensation rule, the second question is the one that matters.
- Self consumption is the reliable part
- A kilowatt hour your house uses as it is produced is worth the retail rate no matter what any tariff says about exports. In South Dakota that is the only part of the return nobody can change.
From NorthWestern’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-29 · source
NorthWestern net metering questions
- Does NorthWestern offer one for one net metering?
- No. NorthWestern does not offer net metering in South Dakota, because South Dakota does not require it. Its Small Qualifying Facility Rider buys exported energy at 2.547 cents a kilowatt hour. Power your house uses as it is produced is netted instantly and keeps its full retail value — but the residential rate is a declining block falling to 3.565 cents above 1,200 kilowatt hours, so for a heavy user the units solar displaces first are worth little more than exporting them.
- What does NorthWestern pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Exports pay 2.547 cents, on a rate that falls as you use more. None. Energy delivered is compensated on each monthly bill rather than banked as credit.
- Do I need a battery with NorthWestern?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because NorthWestern 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 NorthWestern territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my NorthWestern bill?
- Sign in at northwesternenergy.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 NorthWestern?
- Ask what block your house actually finishes each month in, because that is what your solar is worth. The residential rate falls to 3.565 cents above 1,200 kilowatt hours and solar cuts the bill from the top block downward, so a heavy user can find the saving and the 2.547 cent export rate almost the same number. Get the capacity payment in writing before you count it: $4.29 a kilowatt for solar is paid only in June through September, and only if the array delivers at a 65 percent on peak capacity factor. Budget the rider’s $2.00 customer charge on top of the $7.00 on Rate No. 10, and note that the tariff binds you for twelve months while making the rate "subject to annual review."