Net Metering to Net Billing

What BC Hydro's change means for your solar

On June 1, BC Hydro sent a notice to net metering customers across the province. I received it too, on my own home account. The message: as of July 1, 2026, net metering is being replaced by a new self-generation rate, also called net billing. If you have grid-tied solar, or you are thinking about it, here is what is changing and what you can do to stay ahead of it.

What is actually changing

Under net metering, your solar worked like a one-for-one energy swap. A kilowatt-hour you sent to the grid during the day earned you a kilowatt-hour credit to pull back at night, valued at the retail rate. Send one, take one back. The accounting was done in energy.

Under net billing, the accounting is done in dollars. BC Hydro now buys your excess generation at a flat 10 cents per kilowatt-hour and credits it on each billing cycle rather than once a year. Jeff MacAulay, CEO of Charge Solar, walked installers through how that number is built: roughly 8 cents for the value of the electricity itself, plus about 2 cents for the transmission and delivery costs your local power helps the grid avoid. Because your energy is produced and used close to home, it does not travel far across the system, and that saved cost is reflected in the rate.

The practical effect: exported power is worth less than it was under net metering. Power you use yourself is still worth the full retail rate, which for most homes lands above 10 cents. That single fact is the key to everything below.

Why BC Hydro made this change

This was not sudden. BC Hydro applied for the change in 2024, it went through nearly two years of review at the BC Utilities Commission, and the BCUC approved it on March 24, 2026. Around the same time the application went in, BC Hydro launched the $5,000 solar panel rebate, which has been hugely popular. In the rebate terms and conditions, accepting the rebate also meant accepting a future move to the new rate once approved. So for many homeowners, this notice confirms something they agreed to at install. For others reading the fine print for the first time, it is news.

The bigger reason sits underneath the policy. Solar generation peaks around midday. Household demand peaks around dinner time, near 7 p.m., when people get home, cook, and turn on heat. At high levels of solar adoption, that mismatch becomes a real grid problem. Generation floods in when demand is low, then drops off right as demand climbs.

A common household pattern. Demand dips through the middle of the day and climbs to its highest point around 7 to 8 p.m., after the sun is down.

This is where it helps to see where we sit. Australia leads the world, with roughly 43% of households running rooftop solar. Germany sits near 11% of homes. California ran into the timing problem early and reformed its own export rules in 2023. Canada, by contrast, is still in the early innings. Behind-the-meter solar supplies only about 0.2% of the country's energy demand, fewer than 5% of new homes include solar (against 20 to 30% in California and Australia), and BC, while a Canadian front-runner, is low by international standards.

So BC is not living an acute oversupply problem today. BC Hydro is planning ahead, learning from the high-adoption markets, and shaping a rate that rewards using your own power and storing it.

What it means for your payback

Net billing changes the math, and BC Hydro published its own analysis of how much. The headline is the part most people miss: keeping your rebate and moving to net billing pays back faster than repaying your rebate to stay on net metering, in every scenario.

Payback period in years, by self-consumption level (BC Hydro analysis):

Self-consumption level	System size	Keep rebate + net billing (yrs)	Repay rebate + net metering (yrs)
Higher self-consumption (25% exported)	5 kW	14.2	20.1
	8 kW	16.4
	10 kW	17.4
Moderate (50% exported)	5 kW	15.2	21.3
	8 kW	17.7
	10 kW	18.8
Lower self-consumption (75% exported)	5 kW	16.6	22.8
	8 kW	19.4
	10 kW	20.6

Source: BC Hydro analysis. Lower export, meaning higher self-consumption, shortens the payback.

Two things jump out. First, holding the rebate wins across the board. Second, the more of your own solar you use rather than export, the shorter your payback. A 5 kW system paying back in 14.2 years when most of its power is self-consumed, versus 16.6 years when most is exported. The new structure rewards self-consumption, and so does the data.

What you can do about it

Keep your rebate. For most homeowners, the $5,000 is worth more than the difference the old rate would have returned, and the table above shows the payback is shorter on net billing anyway. If you are an existing customer weighing whether to repay your rebate to stay on net metering, the deadline to repay in full is June 30, 2026. Most people will not benefit from returning it, but the option exists if your situation is unusual.

Shift your usage into the daylight. This is the simplest lever and it costs nothing to start. Run the dishwasher, the dryer, and the laundry during the day. Take showers and heat water while the sun is up. Charge the EV midday when you can. Every kilowatt-hour you use as you generate it is worth the full retail rate to you, around 13 cents, instead of the 10 cent export credit. You are not relying on BC Hydro to value your exports. You are simply buying less of their power.

The goal. Usage that peaks in the middle of the day, lined up with when your panels produce the most. Even a partial shift toward this shape lifts the share of solar you use yourself.

Add a battery. Storage is what closes the gap between midday generation and the evening peak. You bank your solar during the day and deploy it at dinner time when demand and grid prices are highest. For homeowners who already have solar without storage, a battery retrofit is the most direct way to lift self-consumption under the new rate. Battery costs continue to fall, and Canadian electrical and safety standards have advanced quickly in recent years.

Look at the optional Time of Day rate. BC Hydro offers a rate with a discount overnight and a premium at the evening peak. Paired with a battery or an EV, you can charge when power is cheapest and use it when it would otherwise cost the most. This works best today for homes with an EV, and the advantage grows as rates evolve.

The bottom line

The change is real, and it does reduce the value of exporting power. It does not change the fundamentals. BC Hydro rates are not going down, the rebate is still substantial, and solar still pays for itself well inside its warranty life. Net billing simply rewards a smarter pattern: use what you make, store the rest, and lean on the grid less.

At Aurum Solar Ltd., we are helping homeowners across the Comox Valley and Vancouver Island make sense of the self-generation program, choose systems built for self-consumption, and add storage to systems already on the roof.

Book your consultation today to learn how the self-generation program, current incentives, and battery storage fit your home. Book Now