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Net Metering Program
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Puget Sound Energy net metering in Washington

The central Puget Sound region, including Bellevue, Tacoma’s suburbs, Olympia and Bellingham. An investor owned utility, with net metering under its Schedule 150.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
1.2M

What they credit you

One for one in kWh, granted to PSE on 31 March

Published terms

Schedule 150 bills a month of net use normally. When the system sends more than the house takes, the excess kilowatt hours are credited and carried to offset consumption on following bills, one for one.

Month to month
Excess kilowatt hours carry to following bills.
Once a year
On 31 March each year, any remaining unused kilowatt hour credits accumulated during the previous year are granted to PSE without compensation.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-07 · source

Installers serving PSE 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 PSE 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 PSE bill

An average Washington 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$142.39
$142.39
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 41660 kilowatt hours. A 955 kilowatt hour month against 1,221 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 266 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $142.39 to $0.00 at 14.91 cents per kilowatt hour.

Washington average household use, 955 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 14.91¢ 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.

What your installer should be telling you

Schedule 150 stays open to new applicants until 31 December 2025 or until a replacement net metering schedule is in place, whichever is later, and the sheet in force (9th Revision, effective 29 February 2024) names no replacement yet. Ask PSE which schedule your application will fall under. Meter aggregation carries a one-time $85 charge.

What PSE 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
$7.49 a month
How it is set
Schedule 7 sets a Basic Charge of $7.49 a month for single phase service, $17.99 for three phase, and states no separate minimum clause above it, so the basic charge is the floor. The sheet is banded by date and this is one of the rare cases where the band does not change the answer: it prints “Through January 28, 2026” and “Beginning January 29, 2026” and the Basic Charge is $7.49 in both. What moved was the energy, from 13.3017 cents to 14.1598 cents for the first 600 kilowatt hours and from 15.2434 to 16.1015 cents above that. The more useful thing here is what PSE does NOT do. Schedule 150, the net metering rider to schedules 7 through 49, says the rates for service through the designated meter “shall be equal to the basic charge in the schedule under which the Customer-Generator would normally receive service”. No extra monthly charge, no per kilowatt adder, no separate solar rate — a Washington customer-generator pays the same $7.49 as the neighbor without panels. That is unusual enough to be worth stating: Georgia, New York, the Carolinas, Alabama and both other Dakotas utilities all add something.

Schedule 7, Residential Service, 39th Revision of Sheet No. 7 and Original Sheet No. 7.1, WN U-60, Advice 2025-03, by authority of Order 09 in WUTC Dockets UE-240004 and UG-240005; net metering terms at Schedule 150, 9th Revision of Sheet No. 150, effective 29 February 2024 · checked 2026-09-30 · source

Applying to PSE

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

One for one, in kilowatt hours
Under RCW 80.60.030(3), when the system sends more than the house takes in a billing period, you pay the customer charges and the excess kilowatt hours are credited on the next bill, to offset what you use later.
On 31 March the leftover is granted to the utility
RCW 80.60.030(5): any remaining unused kilowatt hour credits accumulated during the previous year "shall be granted to the electric utility, without any compensation to the customer-generator".
Net metering has an end date
RCW 80.60.020(1)(a) requires a utility to offer net metering only until the earlier of 30 June 2029 or the date net metered capacity reaches 4% of its 1996 peak demand. After that, each utility may adopt its own tariff for new customers.
100 kW, and one extra meter
A net metering system may be up to 100 kW AC. On request, credits can be shared with one additional meter on the same or a contiguous parcel, billed to the same customer.
The rule reaches public utility districts too
Chapter 80.60 RCW applies to the public utility districts and city light departments as well as the investor owned utilities.

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

PSE net metering questions

Does PSE offer one for one net metering?
Yes. Schedule 150 bills a month of net use normally. When the system sends more than the house takes, the excess kilowatt hours are credited and carried to offset consumption on following bills, one for one. Excess kilowatt hours carry to following bills.
What does PSE pay for power sent back to the grid?
One for one in kWh, granted to PSE on 31 March. On 31 March each year, any remaining unused kilowatt hour credits accumulated during the previous year are granted to PSE without compensation.
Do I need a battery with PSE?
Not for the economics. PSE credits exports at the retail rate, so power you send out during the day comes back at the same value after dark without storage. A battery is still worth considering for outages during hurricane season, but it is an upgrade here rather than a requirement.
How do I find my PSE bill?
Sign in at pse.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 PSE?
Schedule 150 stays open to new applicants until 31 December 2025 or until a replacement net metering schedule is in place, whichever is later, and the sheet in force (9th Revision, effective 29 February 2024) names no replacement yet. Ask PSE which schedule your application will fall under. Meter aggregation carries a one-time $85 charge.