Indiana EDG Solar Credits: Check What Replaced Traditional Net Metering

An Indiana homeowner can hear “net metering” during a sales presentation and receive a very different arrangement on the utility bill. For newer qualifying systems at the state's large investor-owned utilities, Excess Distributed Generation, or EDG, replaced the traditional retail-credit program.

Before comparing the solar payment with promised savings, identify which program your account actually uses. A neighbor's older installation may have protections that your new system does not.

Installation history matters

The IURC's 2026 annual report distinguishes qualifying facilities installed before December 31, 2017, with legacy treatment until July 1, 2047, from the later eligible group installed from January 1, 2018 through June 30, 2022 or an earlier utility capacity cutoff, with treatment until July 1, 2032. Newly installed qualifying facilities after the transition receive EDG credits. These are eligibility categories, not a promise based solely on the year printed on a proposal.

Ask for the account's approved rider, permission-to-operate records and enrollment history. If the house already had solar when you bought it, preserve the seller's utility and interconnection documents as well. Do not assume the current marketing page establishes the history of an existing system.

This discussion concerns the regulated investor-owned utility transition. A municipal or cooperative customer should request that provider's program rather than applying an AES Indiana, Duke or NIPSCO rider automatically.

EDG is a different calculation

EDG compensation is tied to the supplier's average marginal energy price for the preceding calendar year multiplied by 1.25. That is not 125 percent of the residential retail price. The applicable utility tariff determines the account calculation and current credit.

AES Indiana provides a useful example. Its Rider 16, effective July 27, 2026, separately records energy supplied to the home and excess generation sent back to the utility. The rider bills inflow under the customer's service schedule and credits outflow at 5.4325 cents per kWh. Its rate is updated annually.

That separate-channel calculation should not be modeled as simply subtracting all monthly exports from imports and pricing the remainder at retail. Nor should AES Indiana's price be copied into a quote for another utility.

Test the sales model with two households

Imagine two households with similar total production. One uses more electricity while its panels are producing. The other exports more during the day and buys more later. A model that values all production identically may miss the difference between those households' utility results.

Ask the seller to separate projected onsite use, exported energy and purchased energy. Then request the tariff and effective date behind each price. If the proposal contains only annual production and an annual savings total, it does not yet show enough detail to reproduce the bill.

Also distinguish the value assigned to exported electricity from the treatment of an unused dollar credit. AES Indiana's rider preserves a minimum charge, carries qualifying unused credits forward while the customer remains in the program at the premises, and does not allow transfer to another account. A credit bank should not be described as unrestricted cash.

Build the comparison around your account

Gather the proposal, rider, electricity bills and solar payment schedule. Mark where the estimate used retail netting, an outdated EDG rate or the wrong utility. Ask for a revised calculation while preserving the original evidence.

If the company says the system met its production promise, check whether the contract's promise concerned production alone or also included a specific savings representation. Those questions should be evaluated separately. Production that matches a forecast does not prove the price assumptions were appropriate.

Solar Exit's document-review path can help organize the agreement and sales materials. Include the utility records through the billing-review path. No tariff difference alone determines a cancellation right or guaranteed remedy.

General consumer information, not legal, tax or electrical advice. Program eligibility and contract options depend on the documents and circumstances.