Dominion Energy Virginia net metering in Virginia

Applying to Dominion

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

Nothing is paid for your annual surplus unless you ask first

Both tariffs sell your year-end surplus only under a power purchase agreement, and both require the written request "prior to the beginning of the Net Metering Period". Appalachian Power states the consequence outright: "absent a signed power purchase agreement as outlined above, [the Customer] shall receive no compensation from the Company for any Excess Generation." Miss the request and a year of surplus is simply kept. Ask for the power purchase agreement in writing before your system is switched on.

The price is a PJM wholesale index

Dominion buys your year-end surplus "at a price equal to the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) DOMZONE day-ahead annual, simple average LMP (locational marginal price), as published by the PJM Market Monitoring Unit, for the most recent calendar year". That is the wholesale price of power in Dominion’s PJM zone, not the retail price on your bill, and it moves with the market every year.

Inside the year, a kilowatt hour really is a kilowatt hour

Billing period credits "will be accumulated, carried forward and applied at the first opportunity to any billing periods having positive net consumption". In a month where you export more than you import you pay only Dominion’s non usage sensitive charges. This is genuine retail netting, and it is the part worth most.

But you cannot carry forward more than you used

Credits left at the end of a net metering year roll into the next one "only to the extent that such accumulated Billing Period Credits carried forward do not exceed the Customer’s billed consumption for the current Net Metering Period". Oversize the system and the surplus above your own annual use is stranded rather than banked.

Your roof is capped by your bill, at 150 percent

For systems interconnected on or after 1 July 2020, Dominion allows a generator "capable of generating no more than 150 percent of the Net Metering Customer’s previous 12 months of usage history". The 25 kW figure in the statute is the ceiling above that, not the operative limit for most houses.

Not every rate plan is eligible

Net metering is available only to a customer served "on either a non-time of usage rate schedule, Schedule 1G (Experimental) or on a Demand Charge-based Time-of-Use Tariff". An ordinary time of use plan does not qualify, so check which schedule you are on before you apply.

Your net metering year starts on your own anniversary

The Net Metering Period is "each successive 12 month period beginning with the first meter reading date following the date of interconnection". It is not the calendar year, so the date your surplus is settled and the deadline for the power purchase agreement both depend on when you switched on.

The cap is measured against a forecast

The 6 percent ceiling is set against "the Company’s Virginia adjusted peak-load forecast for the previous year", and one of those six points is reserved for low income customers. If your installation would breach it, Dominion notifies you and the Commission and the interconnection is refused.

The statute you are reading may not be the one you apply under

The version of § 56-594 published by the Virginia law site carries the note "Effective January 1, 2027", following amendment by HB 1255. Confirm with your utility which version governs an application filed today.

Residential systems are capped at 25 kW

The section limits an eligible residential facility to "not more than 25 kilowatts for residential customers". That is generous by national standards.

But the standby charge starts at 20 kW, not 25

A facility "with an aggregate nameplate capacity that exceeds 20 kilowatts of alternating current shall pay to its supplier ... a monthly standby charge", in Phase II Utility territory. In practice that makes 20 kW the number to design against.

The program has a ceiling, and part of it is reserved

The aggregate cap is "six percent, in the aggregate, five percent of which is available to all customers and one percent of which is available only to low-income utility customers". If you qualify as low income, you are competing for a separate and less crowded allocation.

Cooperatives are a different statute with a different cap

Electric cooperative territories run under § 56-594.01, with caps of 2% of the co-op’s system peak for residential customers, 2% for not-for-profit customers and 1% for other businesses, which a co-op board may raise. If your provider is a co-op, the section above is not the one that governs you.

What excess is worth is set by tariff, not by the statute

The supplier purchases excess electricity "at the rate that is provided for such purchases in a net metering standard contract or tariff approved by the Commission". At both investor owned utilities that tariff turns out to price it at a PJM wholesale index rather than at retail.

You can make them tell you how much of the cap is left

Dominion’s tariff: "Upon request by the Customer, the Company will provide to the Customer the amount of capacity still available for interconnection." Neither company publishes the figure, but you are entitled to ask for it, and it is the number that decides whether you can join at all.

There is a $50 inspection fee once you pass 10 kW AC

Both utilities charge $50 to inspect the inverter settings of a system above 10 kW AC, or any non-inverter system. Appalachian Power also requires you to carry liability insurance for as long as you stay interconnected.

From Dominion’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-21 · source