Rooftop solar panels on a New York City home connected to the Con Edison grid

Con Edison Net Metering: How You Get Paid for Solar

Updated July 2026. Rebates and tax credits get all the attention, but they are one-time events. Net metering is the incentive that pays you every single month for as long as the panels are on your roof — and in Con Edison territory, where electricity is among the most expensive in the country, it is far and away the biggest number in a NYC solar proposal. Here is exactly how it works, what the fine print says in 2026, and how to read the savings line on a quote without getting fooled.

The basic mechanic: your meter runs backward

Your solar array does not store power. On a bright afternoon it produces more than your home is using, and that surplus flows out to the street. At night and on cloudy days you pull power back in. Con Edison’s meter tracks both directions.

Under net metering, every kilowatt-hour you export earns a credit worth the full retail rate — the same price you pay to buy a kilowatt-hour, including both the supply and the delivery portions of your bill. That last detail matters more in New York City than almost anywhere else. Delivery is typically over half of a Con Edison bill. In markets where exports are credited at supply-only rates, solar economics collapse. In Con Edison territory a homeowner is currently credited at something in the neighborhood of 30 cents per kWh all-in, which is why a NYC roof pays back faster than a much sunnier roof in Arizona.

Banking summer sun for winter

Credits do not have to be used the month you earn them. Surplus rolls forward on your account, so a system sized correctly for your home builds a balance from April through September and draws it down from November through February, when a NYC roof produces roughly a third of what it does in June. This is the whole reason a well-designed system targets your annual usage rather than your summer usage.

Once a year Con Edison trues up the account. Any credit balance you never used gets converted to cash at the avoided-cost rate — a wholesale figure, roughly a third of retail. If that cash-out is over $100 you get a check; under $100 it lands on your bill. The practical takeaway: oversizing your system is a bad deal. Every kWh you overproduce beyond your annual consumption is redeemed at wholesale instead of retail. A company pushing you toward the largest array your roof can physically fit is selling panels, not savings.

The fine print for 2026

Net metering is not gone, and it is not shrinking. New York moved commercial and community solar to the Value Stack (VDER) years ago, and every year someone predicts residential is next. For one-to-three family homes in Con Edison territory, straight 1:1 net metering is still the default, and customers who interconnect under the current structure are protected for a 20-year term from their interconnection date. If you are waiting for a better program, you are waiting on something that does not exist.

The Customer Benefit Contribution. Systems interconnected on or after January 1, 2022 pay a small monthly charge based on system size. For 2026, NYSERDA publishes the Con Edison residential net-metered rate at $1.29 per kW of DC capacity per month — about $10 a month on an 8 kW system. It is a real cost and it belongs in an honest savings estimate, but at roughly $120 a year against multiple thousands in offset electricity, it does not change the answer. Note that this rate is republished annually and is not locked in at interconnection.

You will still get a bill. Net metering zeroes out your usage charges, not your account. Con Edison’s monthly basic service charge stays, along with taxes and surcharges. Any proposal that shows your Con Edison bill going to $0.00 is wrong. Expect a small bill, not no bill.

Size limits. Residential net metering covers systems under 50 kW, which no one-family home approaches — a typical NYC install is 6 to 12 kW. The real constraint is that your system should be sized to your own historical usage.

How net metering stacks with the rest

Net metering is the recurring benefit. Alongside it, a NYC homeowner in 2026 has the New York State solar tax credit (25% of system cost, capped at $5,000, Form IT-255) and the NYC solar property tax abatement (30% of system cost credited against property taxes over four years, filed on a PTA4). The 30% federal residential credit expired December 31, 2025 — if a quote still shows it as a benefit to you, that quote is out of date.

If upfront cost is the obstacle, Solar Pro offers $0-down lease and prepaid-lease options. The financing company owns the system and claims the available federal credit itself, passing the benefit through as a lower payment — you get the panels and the Con Edison net-metering savings without writing a check at installation.

Getting interconnected

None of this starts until Con Edison approves the interconnection and swaps in a net meter. The sequence is design, DOB and FDNY permits, the Con Edison interconnection application, installation, inspection, and finally Permission to Operate. Missing paperwork at any step is the usual reason a system sits dark on a roof for weeks. Solar Pro handles the full chain in-house — permits, interconnection, PTA4, and the documentation you need at tax time.

Solar Pro — 139 Stuyvesant Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11221. NABCEP-certified, BBB A+ rated, 5.0 stars. Solar and roofing under one roof.

Call (718) 962-7699 for a free assessment, or request a quote online.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Utility rates, CBC rates and tariff terms change — confirm current figures with Con Edison, NYSERDA and a qualified tax professional before relying on them.