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Net Metering Program
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CPS Energy net metering in Texas

San Antonio and Bexar County. A municipally owned electric and gas utility outside retail choice, so its own terms are the only terms.

Type
Municipal
Accounts
950K

What they credit you

We confirm it for you

Not yet published here

CPS Energy is a municipal provider, so its terms are set by its own board rather than by any state rule. We have not yet read CPS Energy’s own tariff, and we will not print a number we have not verified. Your installer confirms the current terms in writing before you sign. If they will not, walk away.

Installers serving CPS Energy 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 CPS Energy territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are 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 CPS Energy bill

An average Texas 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$174.70
$174.70
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 41620 kilowatt hours. A 1,096 kilowatt hour month against 1,402 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 306 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $174.70 to $0.00 at 15.94 cents per kilowatt hour.

Texas average household use, 1,096 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.94¢ 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.

CPS Energy requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in CPS Energy territory.

CPS Energy has not published a one for one credit that we have been able to verify. Until it does, we assume exporting power to CPS Energy is worth well below what you pay to buy it back.

That does not make solar a bad idea in CPS Energy 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. Texas has no statutory size cap. Your delivery utility, Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas or TNMP, sets the interconnection limits, and your retail provider separately decides whether its buyback plan caps system size or export volume. CPS Energy sets its own limits. Ask CPS Energy 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 CPS Energy 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 CPS Energy in writing for the net metering rider by name and the excess generation credit in cents per kWh. A system on the downtown network may not export at all, and CPS will not buy energy from it.

What CPS Energy 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
$9.50 a month, and credits cannot reduce it
How it is set
CPS calls it a Service Availability Charge, which is why a sweep for “customer charge” finds nothing on its rates page. Both residential schedules set it at the same figure: Residential Service Electric Rate RE and Residential All-Electric Rate RA each open “$ 9.50 Service Availability Charge”, and each then states “Minimum Bill $9.50” directly beneath the energy charges. The sentence that follows is the one that matters to a solar household, and CPS puts it plainly: “The Minimum Bill is not subject to reduction by credits allowed under the adjustments below.” Whatever your roof earns you, it is spent on the energy above this line and never on the line itself. One caveat is in the tariff rather than implied: “A higher Minimum Bill may be specified in the Customer’s Application and Agreement for Electric Service”, so $9.50 is the floor unless your own service agreement sets a larger one — worth checking your agreement rather than assuming. Energy above it is 7.503 cents a kilowatt hour, with a Peak Capacity Charge of 2.150 cents on everything above 600 kWh from June through September only. That summer adder is charged on consumption, so self-consumption at the peak is worth more here than exporting. What CPS still does not publish anywhere is what it pays you for an exported kilowatt hour.

Residential Service Electric Rate RE, effective 1 February 2024, and Residential All-Electric Rate RA on the same figures; both linked as current from CPS Energy’s rates page as at 30 September 2026, its last increase being the 4.25% approved by San Antonio City Council on 7 December 2023 · checked 2026-09-30 · source

CPS Energy net metering questions

Does CPS Energy offer one for one net metering?
We have not been able to verify a published one for one credit from CPS Energy. As a municipal provider it is not bound by whatever state rule covers the investor owned utilities, so it sets its own terms. Ask CPS Energy for the current export rate in writing before you sign anything.
What does CPS Energy pay for power sent back to the grid?
CPS Energy has not published a figure we can verify, so we do not print one. Your installer must confirm the current rate against CPS Energy’s own tariff before you commit.
Do I need a battery with CPS Energy?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because CPS Energy 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 CPS Energy territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my CPS Energy bill?
Sign in at cpsenergy.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 CPS Energy?
Ask CPS Energy in writing for the net metering rider by name and the excess generation credit in cents per kWh. A system on the downtown network may not export at all, and CPS will not buy energy from it.