Net Metering in Ohio: Eligibility, Credits, and the AEP Proposal

Net metering in Ohio lets you offset your electric bill with power your own solar panels or other eligible generator sends back to the grid, with excess generation credited each month at the energy portion of your utility’s standard service rate and rolled forward indefinitely. The rules have been in place since 2008 and remain intact as of mid-2026, but a proposal from AEP Ohio before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) could significantly cut what rooftop solar customers earn.

What You Actually Get Credited

A single bidirectional meter tracks both the electricity your utility delivers to you and the electricity your system sends back during each billing period.¹ When you generate more than you use in a given month, the surplus becomes a monetary credit calculated on the energy component of your utility’s standard service offer.²

That credit carries forward on future bills with no expiration, but the utility is never required to cut you a check for an accumulated surplus. Credits can only offset future charges.³ The utility also cannot bill you for the electricity you export.²

One point often missed: the credit covers only the energy component of your bill. Distribution charges and avoided capacity charges are excluded.⁴ Ohio has never offered a full retail-rate credit, even under the rules in effect today.

Beyond that, a net metering customer pays the same rates, charges, and monthly fees as any other customer in the same class.⁵

Who Qualifies and How Big a System You Can Install

Every regulated electric distribution utility in the state must offer a standard net metering tariff on request. That includes AEP Ohio, Duke Energy Ohio, AES Ohio (formerly Dayton Power & Light), and FirstEnergy’s three Ohio subsidiaries.⁵ Competitive retail electric service providers may offer net metering but aren’t required to.² More than 20,000 residential solar projects have been added since the current rules took effect in 2018.⁴

Eligible technologies cover more than solar: solar photovoltaic and solar thermal electric, wind, biomass, landfill gas, hydroelectric (including small hydro), fuel cells running on renewable fuels, and microturbines up to 2 megawatts. The equipment must sit on your premises and operate in parallel with the grid.⁶ In practice, nearly all installations are rooftop solar.

There is no fixed kilowatt cap. Instead, your system must be intended primarily to offset your own electricity use and cannot exceed 120 percent of your consumption at the time of interconnection.² A household using 10,000 kilowatt-hours a year could install a system sized to produce up to 12,000.

You don’t have to own the equipment. Ohio allows third-party ownership through power purchase agreements, so you can host panels owned by an investor and still qualify. Any renewable energy credits the system produces belong to you unless you sign them away in a separate contract.³

Connecting Your System to the Grid

Before your system can export power, you have to file an interconnection application with your utility. The process is tiered by system size. At AES Ohio, which is representative of the structure statewide:⁷

Level 1 covers systems up to 25 kW and accounts for roughly 90 percent of residential projects. The application fee is $50, and approval typically takes about 10 business days after acknowledgment.
Level 2 covers 25 kW to 2 MW, costs $50 plus $1 per kilowatt, and runs about 20 business days because of an added engineering review.
Level 3 covers anything above 2 MW, requires an impact study and a facility study, costs $100 plus $2 per kilowatt plus study costs, and can take six months to a year.

AES Ohio also charges a one-time $95 fee to swap in a bidirectional meter if you need one, which brings a typical residential bill to around $130.⁸ If your existing meter can’t measure in both directions, you pay for the replacement.⁵ FirstEnergy charges the same $50 Level 1 application fee and requires a site plan, one-line diagram, equipment specifications, and a third-party inspection report after installation.⁹

All equipment must be certified to IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards, and inverter-based systems are blocked from feeding power back during a utility outage for line-worker safety.⁷ Utilities can’t impose extra safety, testing, or insurance requirements beyond those established by the National Electrical Code, IEEE, and Underwriters Laboratories.⁵ Any modification to an approved system requires a new application.

The AEP Ohio Proposal That Could Change the Math

AEP Ohio has filed a proposal with PUCO that would restructure how solar customers are compensated. The case is docketed as 25-0349, part of PUCO’s five-year review of net metering rules, and the outcome could reshape the terms at every regulated utility in the state.⁴

The proposal has two main pieces. First, it would move from “net usage” to “net billing,” applying distribution charges to every kilowatt-hour the utility delivers to your home, even electricity your panels generated and exported moments earlier. Today, distribution charges apply only to the net amount you actually pull from the grid. Second, it would restrict net metering eligibility to customers on the utility’s standard service offer, excluding Ohioans who participate in community aggregation or who buy from a competitive supplier.⁴

AEP has framed the change as a fairness issue, arguing that current rules let solar customers avoid paying their share of distribution costs and shift those costs onto non-solar ratepayers. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel has supported that argument.⁴

A coalition opposes it. The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC), Solar United Neighbors, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, and the city of Akron have urged PUCO to reject the changes. Nolan Rutschilling, the OEC’s managing director of energy policy, said: “In a time that people are struggling to pay their bills, they are trying to gut net metering, which is one of the ways folks who are able to can save money by putting solar on their rooftop.”⁴ The OEC has also argued that charging solar customers distribution fees on power they export amounts to billing them for providing a service.¹⁰

PUCO staff and most other parties in the proceeding have recommended no changes to the existing rules, and a PUCO administrative law judge issued an order suggesting the current framework is working as intended. A final decision is expected later in 2026.⁴²³

One capacity limit worth knowing if you shop with a competitive supplier: providers like AEP Energy operate under an aggregate participation cap of five percent of total peak demand from the prior calendar year.¹¹

Hospitals Are Treated Differently

If you’re researching net metering for a hospital, the standard rules above don’t apply. Hospital systems are exempt from the technology restrictions and from the 120 percent sizing cap, and their excess generation is credited at the locational marginal price of energy set by the regional transmission organization’s real-time market, not the energy component of the standard service offer.⁵² Both utilities and competitive providers must offer a hospital-specific tariff.

Pending Legislation to Watch

Two bills in the Ohio legislature touch on distributed solar and net metering.

Senate Bill 275, introduced in June 2024 by Senator Matt Dolan, would establish virtual net metering and meter aggregation in Ohio for the first time, allowing customers to receive credits from an off-site solar project. That would open participation to renters, people with shaded roofs, and anyone without the capital for a rooftop installation. The bill limits eligible projects to distressed sites such as brownfields, landfills, and abandoned mine lands, and prohibits development on farmland. As of mid-2026, SB 275 remains in the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee with no further action reported.¹²

Senate Bill 294, introduced in autumn 2025 by Senator Mark Romanchuk, defines natural gas as “clean energy” and classifies wind and solar as “not reliable,” and would direct the Ohio Power Siting Board to favor natural gas projects. It doesn’t directly amend the net metering statutes, but critics place it in a broader state environment they describe as hostile to renewable development. Since 2021, the Power Siting Board has rejected six solar projects, while no natural gas plants have been turned down.¹³

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. ORC 4928.01(A)(30)
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. OAC 4901:1-10-28
3
DSIRE. Ohio Net Metering
4
Canary Media. Ohio Utility Slash Rooftop Solar Compensation
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. ORC 4928.67
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. ORC 4928.01(A)(31)
7
AES Ohio. Interconnection
8
AES Ohio. Net Metering
9
FirstEnergy. Ohio Retail Interconnection
10
The Ohio Environmental Council. Utilities Are Trying to Hurt Solar in Ohio Help Us Stop Them
11
AEP Energy. Net Metering
12
Ohio Senate. SB 275
13
Signal Ohio. Ohio GOP Bill Declares Natural Gas Is Clean Energy the State Should Favor