Effective January 1, 2025, the state of Illinois in the US is phasing out the full retail net metering and is transitioning to a new solar incentive structure called Smart Solar Billing.

Aimed to reduce demand in peak times, lowering the cost of electricity and reducing risk of power outages, this new incentive will be applied to support households and small businesses in their installation of a new behind-the-meter BESS and participation in VPPs.

Change from Net Metering to Smart Solar Billing

• Legacy customers will retain their Net Metering benefits throughout the lifetime of their respective systems.
• Under the new Smart Solar Billing policy, export credits will only be applied to the generation component of a customer’s energy bill, which may result in slightly reduced solar savings compared to Net Metering.
• Export credits can now be rolled over year after year without expiration, remaining valid for the entire lifetime of the solar installation.

Despite the changes in solar compensation mechanism, customers can still maximize the upfront discounts offered on solar installations including the Distributed Generation Rebate and the Storage Rebate.

How does OpenSolar support the Illinois Smart Solar Billing?

Electricity tariffs are now updated reflecting the changes in how excess solar production is compensated. This will automatically be reflected in your projects if you have selected an electricity rate from any of the following utilities: Ameren Illinois, Commonwealth Edison Co or MidAmerican. The rate codes come with a (Smart Solar Billing) suffix

When you refer to the Solar Compensation section of these Smart Solar Billing tariffs, they are set to Net Billing with Credit Carryover while export credits vary per utility.

The “Apply NEM Modified Export Rates” are also toggled on hinting our system that the generation credits will only be netted against generation charges.

Rebates from Illinois Smart Solar Billing

For the upfront rebates, you can add and manually create them by heading to Control > Others > Incentives > + Add Incentive. 

Both the Battery Rebate and the Distributed Generation Rebate are Sized Based Incentives worth 300$ per kWh of the battery nameplate capacity and 300$ per kW of PV system DC Capacity.

Should you have further questions on this tariff, send us a message via the OpenSolar Support Form.