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Net Metering Program
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Nashville Electric Service net metering in Tennessee

Nashville and most of Davidson County, plus parts of six neighboring counties. A TVA distributor, and one that buys rooftop exports itself under its NESolar Savings program.

Type
Municipal
Accounts
440K

What they credit you

Exports bought at about 3 cents plus TVA fuel cost

Published terms

Under NESolar Savings, solar generation beyond the home’s load that flows onto the grid at any interval is bought by NES at a seasonal rate plus TVA’s Standard Service Total Monthly Fuel Cost: 3.069 cents a kWh from June to September, 3.197 cents from December to March and 3.244 cents in April, May, October and November, before the fuel cost. Everything the house draws is billed at the full residential rate.

Month to month
Credited on each monthly bill; there is no bank to carry.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-07 · source

Installers serving NES 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 NES 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 NES 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.

NES requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in NES territory.

NES 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 NES 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. NES sets its own limits. Ask NES 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 NES 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

NES says the program is for arrays smaller than 250 kW that average at least 50 kWh of surplus a month, under a five-year agreement either side may end on 30 days’ notice, and NES may change the rates as TVA’s wholesale rates change. The fixed side, about $24.29 a month, survives however much you generate: ask whether cutting your usage moves you down a service-charge tier, because that tier is set by your highest single month.

What NES 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
About $24.29 a month, and it is two charges, not one
How it is set
NES has the most intricate fixed charge on this site. Schedule RS tiers the Service Charge by the HIGHEST single month of usage in your last twelve: $14.06 up to 500 kWh, $18.96 from 501 to 2,000, $26.96 to 4,000, $32.66 to 6,000, and $38.70 above that — each less a $2.00 hydro credit. On top sits a separate TVA Grid Access Charge tiered by your AVERAGE monthly usage: $4.50, then $7.33, $7.88. A typical household lands on $18.96 less $2.00 plus $7.33, so about $24.29. The tariff makes both of them the floor: "the base service charge and grid access charge, as adjusted, constitutes the minimum monthly bill." The detail that matters for solar: the service tier is set by your PEAK month and the grid access tier by your AVERAGE, so a solar household can cut its average sharply and still sit in the same service tier because of one cold January.

Residential Rate Schedule RS, effective October 2024, with the TVA Adjustment Addendum · checked 2026-09-29 · source

Applying to NES

What NES 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 NES’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-07 · source

NES net metering questions

Does NES offer one for one net metering?
No. Under NESolar Savings, solar generation beyond the home’s load that flows onto the grid at any interval is bought by NES at a seasonal rate plus TVA’s Standard Service Total Monthly Fuel Cost: 3.069 cents a kWh from June to September, 3.197 cents from December to March and 3.244 cents in April, May, October and November, before the fuel cost. Everything the house draws is billed at the full residential rate.
What does NES pay for power sent back to the grid?
Exports bought at about 3 cents plus TVA fuel cost. Credited on each monthly bill; there is no bank to carry.
Do I need a battery with NES?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because NES 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 NES territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my NES bill?
Sign in at nespower.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 NES?
NES says the program is for arrays smaller than 250 kW that average at least 50 kWh of surplus a month, under a five-year agreement either side may end on 30 days’ notice, and NES may change the rates as TVA’s wholesale rates change. The fixed side, about $24.29 a month, survives however much you generate: ask whether cutting your usage moves you down a service-charge tier, because that tier is set by your highest single month.