Utah’s export rate is not a fixed number. It is recalculated and refiled every March 1, and on March 1, 2026 it was cut again, by roughly 14%. Check the date on any Utah export rate you are quoted: last year’s figures describe a rate that no longer exists.
The Export Rate Is Recut Every March
Utah has not had traditional net metering for new customers since October 31, 2020. Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 137 Net Billing replaced it: you pay standard retail for everything you consume, and you receive a Public Service Commission-set Export Credit Rate for everything you send back. The two are set separately, and only one of them is reviewed annually.
Season | Previous export credit | From March 1, 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
June to September | 5.636¢ | 4.855¢ | Down 14% |
October to May | 4.745¢ | 4.033¢ | Down 15% |
Those figures come from First Revision Sheet 137.3, effective March 1, 2026, filed under Docket 26-035-T03. Against Utah’s statewide average residential price of about 13.11¢ (Rocky Mountain Power’s actual retail rate differs by schedule), an exported kilowatt-hour is now worth roughly a third of a consumed one, in either season.
Check the date on any Utah export rate you are quoted; figures of roughly 5.7¢ summer and 4.2¢ winter are last year’s rates, and a proposal built on them overstates the savings line.
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Check this year’s rate against your quote
Your Credits Expire at the March Meter Read
Export credits offset the power and energy charges on your bill and carry forward within what the tariff calls the Annualized Billing Period, which ends at your March meter read. Anything unused at that point expires.
The March reset works in a Utah homeowner’s favor. Utah generation peaks in summer, consumption peaks with winter heating and summer cooling, and a March reset gives a full winter to spend down whatever the summer banked.
The practical rule is the same as everywhere the bank empties: build to your own annual consumption, not beyond it. Generation past that point is bought at 4¢ and then, if unspent, worth nothing at all.
The State Credit Closed to Homes in 2024
Utah ran a Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit for residential solar for many years, and it is one of the most frequently miscited incentives in Utah. It stopped covering residential solar installed in 2024 or later. If your system goes in this year, you do not qualify, regardless of what a comparison site says.
The wider program is scheduled to sunset entirely after January 1, 2028, but that has no bearing on a household considering panels now, because the residential door closed two years before that date.
The federal side closed too. The residential credit is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21. Be especially careful with Utah pages that add up “a state credit, a federal credit and a utility rebate” into a headline saving; at least two of those three are no longer available to a new residential buyer.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You are expecting the Utah state solar tax credit. It stopped covering residential systems installed in 2024 or later.
- You are counting on the 30% federal credit. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21.
- You were hoping to join Schedule 135 net metering or Schedule 136 transition. Both are closed to new customers. Existing participants are grandfathered.
- Your power comes from a municipal utility or a cooperative. Schedule 137 is Rocky Mountain Power’s tariff. Municipals and co-ops set their own rules.
- You want a residential system above 25 kW DC. That is the cap under Schedule 137.
Designing Against a Rate That Moves
The annual review is the fact that should shape a Utah decision. The export rate has fallen two years running, and nothing in the tariff guarantees where it lands next March. That does not make solar a poor choice in Utah; it makes an export-heavy design a poor choice, because the half of your production you cannot use is the half exposed to a number that gets revisited every year.
So the questions to put to an installer are about self-consumption and timing. What share of production does this design expect the house to use directly, and what happens to the model if the export rate falls another 15% next March. Any proposal that cannot answer the second question is not a model, it is a brochure. Our Utah cost guide covers pricing and the Utah installer list covers who does the work.
Utah Solar FAQs
Not for new customers. Traditional net metering closed on October 31, 2020 and was replaced by Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 137 Net Billing. You pay standard retail for what you consume and receive a Commission-set Export Credit Rate for what you send back, currently 4.855¢ from June to September and 4.033¢ from October to May, against Utah’s statewide average residential price of about 13.11¢.
Every year, on March 1. The rate is recalculated and refiled annually, and the March 1, 2026 revision cut it from 5.636¢ to 4.855¢ in summer and from 4.745¢ to 4.033¢ the rest of the year, falls of about 14% and 15%. Those figures come from First Revision Sheet 137.3 under Docket 26-035-T03.
Yes. Export credits offset the power and energy charges on your bill and carry forward within the Annualized Billing Period, which ends at your March meter read. Anything unused at that point expires. The March timing is reasonably favorable, since it gives a full winter to spend down what the summer banked, but it still means building beyond your annual consumption wastes generation.
Not for homes. The Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit stopped covering residential solar installed in 2024 or later, and the wider program sunsets after January 1, 2028. Combined with Section 25D at $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025, a new Utah residential buyer has neither a state nor a federal credit available.
To your own consumption, and with self-consumption as the priority. Exports are worth about a third of retail and the rate is revisited every March, so the portion of your production the house cannot use directly is the portion exposed to annual reductions. Ask any installer what happens to their model if the export rate falls another 15% next March.
Self-consumption is what the tariff rewards here. Enter your ZIP code to see what Utah installers are quoting.
Get quotes that model another rate cut
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 137 filings, the legacy schedule closure records, Utah State Tax Commission credit guidance, federal energy data, and IRS guidance for this page. Municipal utilities and cooperatives set their own terms; confirm yours directly. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 21, 2026.
- Rocky Mountain Power. Schedule 137 Net Billing Service, First Revision Sheet 137.3 (Docket 26-035-T03). The Export Credit Rates of 4.855¢ June-September and 4.033¢ October-May effective March 1, 2026, the prior 5.636¢/4.745¢ values, the annual March 1 update, the 25 kW DC residential cap, and the Annualized Billing Period ending at the March meter read after which unused credits expire. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- Rocky Mountain Power. Schedules 135 and 136 closure records. Legacy net metering and transition service closed to new customers October 31, 2020, with existing participants grandfathered. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- Utah State Tax Commission. Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit guidance. The credit ceased covering residential systems installed in 2024 or later; program sunset after January 1, 2028. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Electric Power Monthly. The Utah statewide average residential price used for scale. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS). One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions. Guidance on the Public Law 119-21 termination of the Section 25D residential credit for systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025. Accessed August 21, 2026.
