FPL Net Metering: How Credits Actually Work

Net metering is a way of measuring and billing, not a purchase program. FPL describes the mechanic to customers directly: after approval, the meter is replaced with one that measures energy flowing in both directions, and excess power is deducted from the monthly bill or credited toward a future bill within the same calendar year.²

The binding version of that sentence lives in FPL's filed tariff, in the net metering provision of Section 10 — Eighteenth Revised Sheet No. 10.010, with a date effective of January 1, 2026.¹ Everything below is drawn from that sheet and from the statewide Commission rule it implements.⁵

FPL's tariff states that you are charged for electricity used in excess of what your generation supplied, under normal billing practices. If excess customer-owned renewable generation is delivered to FPL's grid during a billing cycle, it is credited to your energy consumption for the next month's billing cycle.¹

Two details matter more than they look. The credit is expressed in energy, applied against next month's consumption — it is not a dollar payment. And the netting happens across the billing cycle, not instantaneously, which is why a home can export at midday and still buy power that evening without losing anything.

Credits do not sit indefinitely. FPL's tariff states that excess energy credits accumulate and are used to offset usage in subsequent months for a period of not more than twelve months. In the last billing cycle month of each calendar year, any unused credits for excess kWh generated are credited to the next month's billing cycle using an average annual rate based on FPL's COG-1, As-Available Energy tariff.¹ FPL's own customer answers describe the same December settlement at the as-available rate.³

The as-available rate is an avoided-cost rate — what it would have cost the utility to generate or buy that energy — and it is filed separately in the same tariff section as Schedule COG-1.¹ It is materially lower than the retail rate applied to the electricity you buy, and it is not a fixed export price: the filed rate is updated over time. In practice this is why chronically oversizing a system to bank a large surplus tends to disappoint — the surplus is valued at that avoided-cost rate rather than at the retail rate.

If the account closes, the tariff states that unused credits are paid to the customer at that same average annual as-available rate.¹ That is worth knowing before a move; the related contract questions are covered in selling a house with solar panels.

FPL's tariff is explicit that net metering does not eliminate fixed charges. Regardless of whether excess energy is delivered to the grid, the customer must pay the greater of the minimum charge stated in the applicable rate schedule, or the applicable base charge plus any applicable demand charge for the maximum measured demand during the billing period.¹

• FPL's residential schedule RS-1, at Sixty-Third Revised Sheet No. 8.201 with a date effective of January 1, 2026, states a Base Charge of $10.52 and a Minimum of $30.00.
• Charges for electricity used above what your system supplied are billed under your normal rate schedule.
• Eligibility for time-of-use rates is unaffected by the net metering provision.

The first point comes from FPL's rate schedule,⁴ the second and third from the net metering provision itself.¹ A realistic post-solar bill is examined in your electric bill after solar.

FPL is an investor-owned utility whose tariffs the Florida Public Service Commission publishes,⁶ so its net metering terms implement the statewide Commission rule on interconnection and net metering of customer-owned renewable generation.⁵ The statewide framework — including how it differs for municipal utilities and cooperatives — is covered in net metering in Florida and Florida utilities and solar.

One narrow wording difference is worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. The Commission rule says that at the end of each calendar year the utility shall pay the customer for unused energy credits at an average annual rate based on its COG-1 as-available energy tariff. FPL's filed sheet says that in the last billing cycle month of each calendar year, unused credits for excess kWh are credited to the next month's billing cycle using that same average annual rate, and that cash payment is made when the customer closes the account.^5,1

Both documents value the year-end balance the same way, and FPL's sheet is the tariff on file for FPL customers. What we could not verify from primary documents is a Commission order or filing explaining the difference between "pay" in the rule and "credited to the next month's bill" in the tariff. So we will not characterize the year-end mechanism more precisely than the two documents themselves do. If whether you receive a check or a bill credit matters to your plans, ask FPL to confirm in writing how your account will be settled.