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Net Metering Program
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We Energies net metering in Wisconsin

Southeastern Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Appleton. The largest utility in the state, and one of the two that credit exports at avoided cost rather than retail.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
1.1M

What they credit you

Avoided cost, around four cents

Published terms

Monthly excess generation is credited at the avoided cost rate rather than the retail rate, commonly modeled near 4.2 cents per kWh for 2026, for systems up to 300 kW.

Month to month
Credited within the monthly billing period.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-05 · source

Installers serving We Energies 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 We Energies 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 We Energies bill

An average Wisconsin 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$126.16
$126.16
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 41746 kilowatt hours. A 645 kilowatt hour month against 825 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 180 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $126.16 to $0.00 at 19.56 cents per kilowatt hour.

Wisconsin average household use, 645 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 19.56¢ 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.

We Energies requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in We Energies territory.

We Energies 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 We Energies 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. Wisconsin sets the eligible system size per utility, not by statute: 20 kW at Alliant, 100 kW at Xcel and 300 kW at We Energies. Check your own utility’s limit before anyone designs to a number they heard elsewhere. We Energies sets its own limits. Ask We Energies 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 We Energies 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 We Energies for the current avoided cost figure in writing; the 4.2 cent number is a modeling assumption rather than a published tariff we have read.

What We Energies 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
$15.00 a month, priced by the day
How it is set
We Energies prices the fixed charge per day rather than per month, which makes it look smaller than it is: Rate Schedules Rg1 and Fg1 set a “Customer Charge, per day: Single-phase/Three-phase service $0.49315”. Across an average month that is exactly $15.00, and it is billed whatever the meter does. Its sister utility Wisconsin Public Service prices the same charge the same way at $0.58915 a day, so a Wisconsin reader comparing the two is comparing $15.00 with $17.92 — neither of which appears on either rate sheet as a monthly figure. Energy on top runs 19.342 cents a kilowatt hour, plus a fuel cost adjustment of 0.199 cents and an environmental control charge of 0.052 cents. One honest gap: the Conditions of Delivery for Rg1 refer to “the monthly minimum charge” more than once — a customer using service for less than a year pays it in the months service is not required, and no reduced minimum is given for a temporary disconnection — but We Energies does not state in the sheets read here what that minimum is set to. Treat $15.00 as the charge you certainly pay, not as a proven floor. And if you generate, Condition 14 sends you elsewhere again: a customer operating generation in parallel “shall abide by the conditions of purchase for the Company’s generating system tariff under which the customer is served”, so the parallel generation tariff governs what you are paid and is a separate document from this one.

Residential and Farm, Rate Schedules Rg1 and Fg1, in the rates authorized by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin effective 1 January 2026; conditions of delivery at Volume 19 Electric Rates, Sheets 25 to 27, Amendment 776, PSCW Docket 05-UR-109 · checked 2026-09-30 · source

Applying to We Energies

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

Monthly excess is bought at avoided cost, not retail
If you generate more than you consume in a month, the excess is credited at the avoided cost rate, which is what the utility pays for power rather than what it charges you for it.
What that is worth
Local modeling commonly uses an avoided cost export value near 4.2 cents per kWh for 2026. Confirm the current figure with We Energies rather than relying on a model.
Eligible up to 300 kW
The most generous size limit of the three large Wisconsin utilities, which matters far more to a farm than to a house.
The neighboring utility pays retail for the same power
Xcel credits monthly excess at the retail rate and writes a check in January. Wisconsin sets no statewide rate, so the difference is real and it is decided by geography.

From We Energies’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source

We Energies net metering questions

Does We Energies offer one for one net metering?
No. Monthly excess generation is credited at the avoided cost rate rather than the retail rate, commonly modeled near 4.2 cents per kWh for 2026, for systems up to 300 kW.
What does We Energies pay for power sent back to the grid?
Avoided cost, around four cents. Credited within the monthly billing period.
Do I need a battery with We Energies?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because We Energies 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 We Energies territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my We Energies bill?
Sign in at we-energies.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 We Energies?
Ask We Energies for the current avoided cost figure in writing; the 4.2 cent number is a modeling assumption rather than a published tariff we have read.