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Net Metering Program
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Potomac Edison net metering in West Virginia

The Eastern Panhandle, including Martinsburg and Charles Town. The West Virginia arm of a FirstEnergy company that also serves Maryland under quite different rules.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
140K

What they credit you

9.343 cents, and nothing is netted any more

Published terms

Anyone applying today is outside the grandfathering that closed on 31 December 2024, which means gross metering rather than net metering: every kilowatt hour you import is billed at the retail 12.023 cents and every one you export is bought at a flat 9.343 cents. The tariff says that credit rate holds only through 31 December 2026.

Month to month
None for new customers. The rider sets no kilowatt hour carryforward and no annual true-up for anyone outside the grandfathering.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Installers serving Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison bill

An average West Virginia 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$158.67
$158.67
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 41639 kilowatt hours. A 1,027 kilowatt hour month against 1,314 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 287 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $158.67 to $0.00 at 15.45 cents per kilowatt hour.

West Virginia average household use, 1,027 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 15.45¢ 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.

Potomac Edison requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in Potomac Edison territory.

Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison 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. West Virginia’s two utility families pay very differently, and Appalachian Power’s better rate closed to new applications in March 2026, so the design question here starts with which company and which application date. Potomac Edison sets its own limits. Ask Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison 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

Get in writing which side of 31 December 2024 your service location falls on, because the two arrangements are not variations of one another. Then ask what replaces the 9.343 cents on 1 January 2027, because the tariff itself only commits to it through the end of 2026. If you already have solar here and are thinking of adding panels, check the 10 percent rule first: a small expansion can cost you full retail netting on the whole system.

What Potomac Edison 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
$6.00 a month, and the tariff makes that the whole floor
How it is set
Residential Service Rate Schedule "R" sets the Customer Charge at $6.00 a month and then states the minimum bill in one line of its own: "The Customer charge shall be the minimum bill." That is unusually low and unusually clean - no riders stacked into the floor. The energy charge is 12.023 cents a kilowatt hour, with four separate per-kWh environmental and vegetation riders on top of it. Set that 12.023 cents against the 9.343 cents Potomac Edison pays for an exported kilowatt hour.

Residential Service Rate Schedule "R", Fifteenth Revision of Original Sheet No. 8-1, effective 1 August 2026, Case No. 26-0508-E-42T · checked 2026-09-21 · source

Applying to Potomac Edison

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

If you apply now, you are not net metered. You are selling wholesale and buying retail
The rider splits customers by date, and the new arrangement is gross metering: "The electrical energy supplied by the Company to the Customer-generator (‘Metered Input’) and the electrical energy generated by the Customer-generator and supplied to the Company (‘Metered Output’) will be separately measured and charged." Every kilowatt hour you import is billed at the full retail rate and every one you export earns 9.343 cents. Nothing is netted, and the rider sets no carryforward and no annual true-up for this group.
The grandfathering gate shut on 31 December 2024, and it shut on application date
Full retail netting survives only for "Existing Customer-generators as of December 31, 2024" and customers who filed a materially complete application "on or before December 31, 2024" and then got a Certificate of Completion by 31 December 2025 for a residential customer. Both dates are now past. There is no way into the old arrangement.
The 9.343 cent rate has an expiry date printed in the tariff
"The above credit rates for Metered Output will remain in effect through December 31, 2026. Future changes to the credit rates for Metered Output are subject to Commission approval." Anyone modeling a twenty-year payback on 9.343 cents is extrapolating three months past what is actually filed.
Expanding a grandfathered array destroys the grandfathering
The allowance is tiny: a replacement or addition "that results in no more than a 10% or one (1) kilowatt increase in system output, whichever is greater" is safe, and anything beyond that removes the service location from the Grandfathering Provision. A grandfathered household that adds a few panels drops to 9.343 cents on everything.
Liability insurance is mandatory and must be proved before you connect
A customer-generator up to 50 kW "shall maintain general liability insurance in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000)", and "must submit evidence of such insurance to the Company with the interconnection application".
Banked credits die when you move, with no cash-out
"if a Customer-generator terminates service with the electric utility, the utility is not required to provide compensation to the Customer-generator for any outstanding kWh credits."

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

Potomac Edison net metering questions

Does Potomac Edison offer one for one net metering?
No. Anyone applying today is outside the grandfathering that closed on 31 December 2024, which means gross metering rather than net metering: every kilowatt hour you import is billed at the retail 12.023 cents and every one you export is bought at a flat 9.343 cents. The tariff says that credit rate holds only through 31 December 2026.
What does Potomac Edison pay for power sent back to the grid?
9.343 cents, and nothing is netted any more. None for new customers. The rider sets no kilowatt hour carryforward and no annual true-up for anyone outside the grandfathering.
Do I need a battery with Potomac Edison?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my Potomac Edison bill?
Sign in at firstenergycorp.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 Potomac Edison?
Get in writing which side of 31 December 2024 your service location falls on, because the two arrangements are not variations of one another. Then ask what replaces the 9.343 cents on 1 January 2027, because the tariff itself only commits to it through the end of 2026. If you already have solar here and are thinking of adding panels, check the 10 percent rule first: a small expansion can cost you full retail netting on the whole system.