Members who choose to install a member-owned generation system, such as solar panels, on their home or business are required to use a net meter. Unlike a traditional electric meter, a net meter measures the amount of electricity you consume from DMEA and the amount of electricity you put back on to our system.
Important Net Metering Documents
Net Metering Basics
Scenario 1: Your renewable energy system is online and producing enough energy to power all the loads in your home and send excess energy back through the meter onto DMEA’s power lines. The energy is flowing from your system to your home and onto DMEA’s power lines.
How it affects your bill: In this situation, you are directly consuming power from your system and placing excess kilowatt hours (kWh) onto the grid. You are allowed to bank this excess energy. It appears as your accumulated net generation on your bill. Throughout the year, this energy is available for you to use in the event your system is not producing enough energy to meet the needs of your home.
Scenario 2: Your renewable energy system is offline. All energy being used to power the loads in your home is coming from DMEA. Energy is flowing only from DMEA’s power lines to your home.
How it affects your bill: In this situation, all of your power needs are being met by kWh consumed from the grid. You will be charged for these kWh. Since you are not placing any excess generation back onto the grid, your accumulated net generation does not increase. However, if you had previously built up a bank of kWh in your accumulated net generation, DMEA will apply those kWh to your consumption before billing.
Scenario 3: Your renewable energy system is online, but it is not producing enough energy to power all the loads in your home. You are using all the energy your system is producing and some energy from DMEA. Energy is flowing from your system to your home and from DMEA's power lines to your home.
How it affects your bill: In this situation you are consuming power directly from your system and kWh from the grid. You will be charged for the kWh you consume from the grid. While DMEA's net meter can measure electricity that flows from the grid to your home and from your home to the grid (what some call spinning forward and backward), it cannot do this simultaneously. This is why your net meter can only record your net consumption and not the gross production of your system.