Skip to content
Net Metering Program
← Back to the schedule

EPB of Chattanooga net metering in Tennessee

Chattanooga and parts of Hamilton County and north Georgia.

Type
Municipal
Accounts
180K

What they credit you

EPB publishes none; TVA buys excess at its monthly avoided cost

Published terms

EPB publishes no rooftop export rate. Its solar page offers a consultation and the Solar Share community program, which is sold out, and its Rules and Regulations require a written agreement for any equipment that generates electricity. TVA’s Dispersed Power Production Guidelines let a qualified facility in the TVA area sell its output to TVA at a price TVA revises monthly to track its avoided cost: 3.112 cents a kWh under the flat Part A for October 2026, or 2.913 to 3.221 cents by time of day under Part B.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-08 · source

Installers serving EPB 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 EPB 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 EPB bill

An average Tennessee 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$162.37
$162.37
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 41604 kilowatt hours. A 1,154 kilowatt hour month against 1,476 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 322 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $162.37 to $0.00 at 14.07 cents per kilowatt hour.

Tennessee average household use, 1,154 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 14.07¢ 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.

EPB requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in EPB territory.

EPB 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 EPB 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. Tennessee sets no statutory system size limit, because it has no net metering statute. Size is governed by TVA’s interconnection requirements and by your local power company’s own rules. EPB sets its own limits. Ask EPB 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 EPB 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

EPB’s own pages do not mention TVA’s program, so ask EPB in writing whether it will interconnect you for it, what metering it requires, and what it pays, if anything, for exports without a TVA contract. TVA requires a power purchase agreement of at least one year. The floor is $9.81 a month whatever your roof does.

What EPB 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
$9.81 a month, the lowest of the four Tennessee municipals
How it is set
The EPB Base Rate Plan residential schedule sets a Customer Charge of $9.81 a month with energy at 9.095 cents a kilowatt hour plus the TVA fuel cost adjustment, and states that "the base customer charge, as adjusted, constitutes the minimum monthly bill". That is less than half what a Nashville household pays in fixed charges for the same service from the same wholesale supplier, which is a useful illustration that in Tennessee the fixed side of the bill is a local board decision rather than a state or TVA one.

EPB Base Rate Plan, Residential Rate Schedule RS · checked 2026-09-29 · source

Applying to EPB

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

There is no net metering to sign up for
Tennessee has no net metering statute, and none of the utilities read here credits exports at the retail rate. A quote that promises Tennessee net metering should name the document it comes from.
What TVA pays changes every month
TVA buys power under its Dispersed Power Production Guidelines at a price it revises monthly to track its projected avoided cost. Dispersed Power Price Schedule CSPP for October 2026 prints 3.112 cents a kWh under its flat Part A, and 2.913 to 3.221 cents by time of day under Part B.
Your local power company is the whole question
Each local power company sets its own interconnection terms and decides what, if anything, it pays. MLGW pays nothing for exports unless you sign TVA’s contract; NES buys exports itself under NESolar Savings.
You need an interconnection agreement either way
Every installation requires an interconnection agreement with the local power company, whether or not you are paid anything for exports.
Green Connect is a contractor program, not a rate
TVA’s Green Connect connects homeowners with installers in its Quality Contractor Network. It does not pay you for power and it is not net metering.
Self consumption is the entire return here
Where an exported kilowatt hour earns about three cents or nothing at all, the value of a system is what you use inside the house. That makes storage and load shifting central rather than optional.

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

EPB net metering questions

Does EPB offer one for one net metering?
No. EPB publishes no rooftop export rate. Its solar page offers a consultation and the Solar Share community program, which is sold out, and its Rules and Regulations require a written agreement for any equipment that generates electricity. TVA’s Dispersed Power Production Guidelines let a qualified facility in the TVA area sell its output to TVA at a price TVA revises monthly to track its avoided cost: 3.112 cents a kWh under the flat Part A for October 2026, or 2.913 to 3.221 cents by time of day under Part B.
What does EPB pay for power sent back to the grid?
EPB publishes none; TVA buys excess at its monthly avoided cost.
Do I need a battery with EPB?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because EPB 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 EPB territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my EPB bill?
Sign in at epb.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 EPB?
EPB’s own pages do not mention TVA’s program, so ask EPB in writing whether it will interconnect you for it, what metering it requires, and what it pays, if anything, for exports without a TVA contract. TVA requires a power purchase agreement of at least one year. The floor is $9.81 a month whatever your roof does.