Clean energy advice for Pennsylvania homes, where your meter and your supplier are two different questions
Pennsylvania lets you choose who generates your electricity but not who delivers it — and only one of those two decides what your solar exports are worth.
Most of what we untangle for Pennsylvania homeowners is not about panels at all. It is about a deregulated market where the company on your bill for supply and the company that owns the wires are frequently not the same, and where the net metering tariff belongs entirely to the second one.
The good news is that Pennsylvania is a genuinely strong state to go solar in. Every kilowatt-hour you export offsets one you would have bought, at full retail, and SRECs pay you on top of that. A well-designed system here earns from two directions at once. Our job is making sure yours is designed against the right utility and the right numbers.
Pennsylvania at a glance
One-for-one net metering
Every kilowatt-hour you export offsets one you consume, credited at the full retail rate.
Systems up to 50 kW
The one-for-one arrangement covers residential systems far larger than most homes need.
SRECs
Every megawatt-hour your system generates earns a Solar Renewable Energy Credit you can sell.
You choose your supplier
Generation is competitive here. Distribution, and net metering with it, is not.
The Pennsylvania true-up detail that catches people out
Through the year, your exported power is credited at your full retail rate no matter which competitive supplier you have signed with. That part is straightforward, and it is why Pennsylvania is a genuinely good net metering state.
The annual true-up is where it gets subtle. When the year is settled, the rate applied is the utility’s own default service rate — the Price to Compare — not the rate on your competitive supply contract. So a supply deal that looks cheap in January can quietly change what a year of surplus generation is worth in the settlement. It is not a reason to avoid switching suppliers; it is a reason to know which number actually governs before you do.
Your two Pennsylvania electricity decisions
| Distribution (your EDC) | Generation (your supplier) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who provides it | Set by your address | You choose, and can switch |
| Owns the wires and meter | Yes | No |
| Runs net metering | Yes | No |
| Sets the annual true-up rate | Yes — default service | No |
| Effect on your solar | Direct | Indirect, at settlement |
Pennsylvania pays you an income, not a discount
There is no Pennsylvania income tax credit for residential solar and no statewide rebate. What the state has instead is a renewable energy standard that obliges electricity suppliers to source a rising share of their power from solar — and they meet that obligation by buying Solar Renewable Energy Credits, or SRECs.
Your system earns an SREC for every megawatt-hour it generates, and you can sell them. That is a genuine ongoing income stream sitting on top of what net metering already saves you, and it runs for as long as your system is producing. Registering the system is what turns generation into saleable credits — a step homeowners skip more often than you would expect, and one we make sure is done.
Your utility writes the rules, and one of them is proposing to change them
PECO, PPL Electric, Duquesne Light and the FirstEnergy companies
Pennsylvania law requires every investor-owned distributor — PECO, PPL Electric, Duquesne Light, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power — to offer one-for-one net metering for residential systems up to 50 kW. Each runs its own interconnection queue and its own tariff underneath the minimum standards the Public Utility Commission sets, so timelines and paperwork differ even though the credit rate does not.
A proposed change worth watching if you are on PPL
PPL Electric has proposed moving away from one-for-one retail credits toward crediting exports at hourly wholesale market prices instead. It is a proposal rather than a decision, and we will not tell you it has happened when it has not — but if you are in the Lehigh Valley or elsewhere in PPL territory, it belongs in your decision now rather than as a surprise later. We will tell you where the proceeding stands when we speak.
Cooperatives and municipal systems
Not every Pennsylvania electricity provider is a PUC-regulated investor-owned utility. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal systems set their own interconnection and credit terms, so the statewide rules above may simply not apply at your address. Confirming who is on the meter is the first thing we do.
The order we recommend in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania rewards getting a few details straight before the design is fixed. Our recommended sequence:
- Confirm your distributor — it sets the tariff, the queue and the true-up rate
- Look at the roof — direction, pitch, age and how much of it stays clear of shade
- Size against winter — a system sized on a summer average under-serves a Pennsylvania household
- Register for SRECs — generation only earns saleable credits once the system is registered
Pennsylvania roofs are good solar roofs
Pennsylvania gets more usable sun than most people expect — comfortably more than Germany, which built one of the largest solar fleets in the world on less. Pitched roofs, generous lot sizes and a grid that credits you at full retail all work in your favour here.
What actually decides a design is the specifics: which way the roof faces, how much of it stays clear of shade through the day, its pitch and its age, and how it sheds snow in winter. Those four things are worth establishing before anyone quotes you a system size, and they are the first things we look at.
The services Pennsylvania homeowners ask us about most
Battery and backup
Winter storms and summer thunderstorms both take Pennsylvania lines down. Storage decides what stays on when they do. Explore storage
Roofs and re-fits
On an older roof the sensible order is repair or replace, then mount. Energy-efficient roof replacement and detach and reattach exist for exactly this sequence.
Charging and control
Shifting an EV charge off peak is straightforward once you can see the load. Home EV charging and smart controls make that visible.
Pennsylvania questions we hear most
Does switching electricity supplier affect my solar credits?
Not month to month — your exports are credited at full retail regardless of who supplies your generation. It matters at the annual true-up, which settles against the utility’s default service rate rather than your contract rate. Worth understanding before you sign a supply deal, not after.
Is there a Pennsylvania solar tax credit?
No. There is no state income tax credit and no statewide rebate for residential solar. Pennsylvania’s value comes from one-for-one net metering and from SRECs, plus whatever federal position applies to how you finance the system.
What is an SREC worth in Pennsylvania?
SREC prices move with demand from the electricity suppliers who are obliged to buy them, so the honest answer is that it varies. We will show you where they have been trading when we speak, and we size the decision so that it works without assuming the top of the range.
How large a system can I install?
One-for-one net metering applies to residential systems up to 50 kW, which is far above what a typical home needs — so in practice your roof, your usage and your budget set the size, not the rule.
If you are weighing solar or storage anywhere in Pennsylvania, tell us your distributor, the age of your roof and a recent bill. We will tell you what a system on your roof would realistically produce and what it would be worth.