Louisiana Solar After 2020: Why Exported Power May Earn Less Than You Expected

If your Louisiana solar panels are producing electricity but the utility bill is still higher than the sales estimate, check how that estimate valued exported power. Electricity used in the home and electricity sent to the grid do not necessarily produce the same savings.

Louisiana Public Service Commission rules changed for newer distributed-generation customers beginning January 1, 2020. This article addresses that framework and uses Entergy Louisiana's tariff as a concrete example. It does not apply Entergy Louisiana's terms to Entergy New Orleans, a municipal utility or every cooperative account.

Establish which billing arrangement you have

The LPSC's September 19, 2019 General Order provides avoided-cost compensation for exports when the interconnection request and/or installation occurs after December 31, 2019. Qualifying older systems have different treatment. The date of a sales signature alone is not enough to establish which arrangement applies.

Ask the utility to identify the rider on your account and the installation and interconnection records supporting it. If the seller used an older customer's bill as an example, check whether that customer had grandfathered net metering. A genuine example from a different billing program can still be a poor forecast for your home.

Entergy Louisiana explains that eligible grandfathered systems retain the older structure through December 31, 2034, including when the property is sold, but a material modification can end that eligibility. Before an expansion, obtain the utility's written explanation of its effect on the existing arrangement.

Read the two meter channels separately

Entergy Louisiana's Schedule DG explicitly does not subtract the monthly totals of its two channels from one another. Imported electricity is billed under the applicable retail schedule; exported electricity receives a separate credit. The tariff's Attachment A lists $0.0386407 per kWh, effective April 1, 2026, and says the avoided-cost value updates annually with April billing. This is an Entergy Louisiana rate, not a statewide price.

As a simple illustration, imagine sending electricity to the grid while the house is quiet, then buying electricity later when everyone is home. Equal quantities do not necessarily cancel the energy charges dollar for dollar. The exported quantity and the imported quantity have different prices under this rider.

The useful question for the sales estimate is therefore how much production it expects the household to consume directly and how much it expects to export. An annual production total cannot answer that question by itself.

Check the forecast before buying a proposed fix

Request the original consumption assumptions and export calculation. Did the estimate assign the retail price to all production? Did it preserve the minimum bill and other non-bypassable charges? Did it assume a buyback price would increase whenever the retail price increased?

Compare those assumptions with a complete set of bills and the production history. Keep the meter dates aligned: a calendar-month inverter report may not match a utility billing cycle. Note household changes, such as occupancy or new appliances, without assuming every difference is caused by the tariff.

If someone proposes batteries or more panels to repair the savings gap, ask for a separate financial comparison that includes the new purchase and financing costs. The fact that self-consumed electricity and exports have different values does not establish that an additional purchase will pay for itself.

Preserve the promise and the actual result

Save the dated proposal, signed agreement, utility rider and bills showing imports and exports. Ask for any revised savings calculation in writing and keep the original version. That record helps distinguish a pricing assumption from a production problem or an enrollment issue.

Use Solar Exit's utility-billing review to organize the discrepancy, and include your agreement in a contract review. A shortfall in expected savings deserves examination, but it does not automatically make an agreement cancelable.

General consumer information, not legal, tax or electrical advice. Individual treatment depends on the utility, tariff, dates and agreement.