Iowa solar export compensation
What Iowa pays for exported rooftop solar power, with the source and the date each figure was checked.
Record verified 2026-09-16 · 16 of 17 fields sourced
What does your utility pay?
No single rate — formula based
Rate IO outflow purchase rate: applicable retail volumetric rate, including applicable kWh-based adjustment clauses and riders; Rate QF purchases are under the utility’s avoided-cost tariff.
MidAmerican Energy · Iowa
Rate IO credits dollar outflow credits against applicable volumetric charges; unused credits carry through the annual period and are not required to be converted to cash.
Source: midamericanenergy.com
Full MidAmerican Energy detail →Iowa does not use one statewide retail-rate net-metering tariff. Under 199 IAC 15.10(3), utilities must offer net metering or inflow-outflow billing for qualifying alternate-energy facilities, while Iowa Code section 476.49 supplies the method-specific credit, annual cash-out, and twenty-year rate framework. MidAmerican and Interstate Power and Light (Alliant) publish inflow-outflow tariffs; their excess-credit and avoided-cost treatment differs by tariff and customer vintage. Black Hills Energy’s Iowa regulatory materials reviewed here are gas-only, so no Iowa electric export tariff was identified for that company.
Program details
| Compensation mechanism | Iowa requires each utility to offer either net metering or inflow-outflow billing for an alternate energy production facility; a facility may instead choose a purchase-and-sale arrangement at the tariffed rate. |
|---|---|
| Export rate | There is no single statewide dollar rate. Under the current inflow-outflow method, the outflow purchase rate is the applicable retail volumetric rate until a value-of-solar methodology is approved; net-billing excess is cashed out at the utility avoided-cost rate. |
| Rate effective | The current IAC chapter 15 text states the net-metering rule is effective July 16, 2025; MidAmerican Rate IO is effective November 24, 2020, and IPL Rate IO is approved effective December 30, 2020. |
| Credit rollover | Yes, but method-specific: net-billing kWh credits may offset future billing periods, and inflow-outflow dollar credits may offset future volumetric charges during the annual period. |
| Credit expiration | Net-billing excess kWh remaining after twelve months is cashed out at avoided cost. Inflow-outflow credits last until the end of the annual period; excess credits are forfeited rather than converted to cash. |
| Annual true-up | The customer chooses January or April at interconnection for the annual cash-out/annual period. |
| Residential system cap | No uniform statewide residential nameplate cap is stated in the reviewed rule; Iowa instead requires the tariffed method selected by each utility. Utility limits apply: IPL inflow-outflow eligibility is up to 1 MW AC and up to 110% of annual usage, while MidAmerican’s Rate IO uses the same statutory retail-rate framework. |
| Commercial system cap | No uniform statewide commercial nameplate cap is stated in the reviewed rule. IPL limits its inflow-outflow tariff to 1 MW AC and 110% of annual usage; generation above those limits is handled under the tariff’s avoided-cost provisions. |
| Aggregate program cap | No statewide net-metering enrollment cap is identified. Iowa Code section 476.44 separately limits the mandatory purchase obligation for alternate-energy facilities to each utility’s share of 105 MW; that is a PURPA purchase-obligation limit, not a net-metering program cap. |
| Program status | The statewide framework is open in the sense that each utility must offer net metering or inflow-outflow billing, subject to facility and tariff eligibility; no statewide closed/full status is stated. |
| Regulator | The Iowa Utilities Commission (formerly Iowa Utilities Board) approves the utility tariffs and oversees the applicable electric rules. |
| Docket | The IUC lists MidAmerican Rate IO under Docket TF-2020-0235 and IPL Inflow-Outflow DG Billing under TF-2020-0237; IPL’s net-metering pilot revisions are TF-2020-0238. |
| Governing rule | Iowa Code sections 476.43, 476.44, and 476.49, together with 199 IAC 15.5 and 199 IAC 15.10(3), govern qualifying-facility purchases and distributed-generation billing. |
| Grandfathering | The inflow-outflow purchase rate continues for twenty years for an eligible facility. IPL’s tariff also states that its older Net Metering Pilot is frozen to existing customers at existing locations with interconnection agreements. |
| Interconnection application | The customer must use the utility’s interconnection process and written tariff agreement; IPL requires an interconnection plan for approval and the application must include a schematic, equipment specifications, and proposed interconnection date. |
| Interconnection timeline | Not yet verified |
| Pending change | No currently pending statewide value-of-solar docket was identified in the reviewed IUC materials. Iowa Code section 476.49 requires the Commission to initiate a value-of-solar proceeding after July 1, 2027, or when statewide distributed-generation penetration reaches five percent, whichever is earlier. |
Rates by utility
State rules set the framework. Individual utilities often pay something different, and where they do the utility tariff governs.
| MidAmerican Energy | Rate IO outflow purchase rate: applicable retail volumetric rate, including applicable kWh-based adjustment clauses and riders; Rate QF purchases are under the utility’s avoided-cost tariff. Rate IO effective November 24, 2020; current Iowa electric tariff PDF checked 2026-09-16. Rate IO credits dollar outflow credits against applicable volumetric charges; unused credits carry through the annual period and are not required to be converted to cash. |
|---|---|
| Interstate Power and Light (Alliant Energy) | Inflow-Outflow Rate Code IO: retail volumetric rate, including applicable volumetric rider charges; excess under the legacy Net Metering Pilot cashes out at the avoided-cost CSPP rate. IPL Rate IO approved December 30, 2020; current CSPP sheet effective September 1, 2026. IO eligibility is up to 1 MW AC and 110% of annual usage; excess credits are handled at the annual January-or-April period. |
| Black Hills Energy | No Iowa electric export rate identified; Black Hills Energy’s reviewed Iowa regulatory tariff page publishes Iowa gas tariff documents. Iowa rates page checked 2026-09-16. Black Hills Energy appears in Iowa as a gas utility in the reviewed Iowa regulatory materials; the interconnection tariff found in search results is for Colorado/South Dakota, not Iowa electric service. |
Sources read for this record
- iuc.iowa.gov/regulated-industries/electric/site-distributed-generation
- legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGE/88/SF583.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov/docs/iac/chapter/09-02-2026.199.15.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/2026/476.43.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/2026/476.44.pdf
- midamericanenergy.com/media/pdf/iowa-electric-tariffs.pdf
- alliantenergy.com/-/media/alliant/documents/accountandbilling/ratesandtariffs/iowaelectr
- alliantenergy.com/-/media/alliant/documents/accountandbilling/ratesandtariffs/iowaelectr
- blackhillsenergy.com/billing-and-payments/rates-and-regulatory-information/iowa-rates-and-r
Keep reading
- Every state we track
- How these figures are sourced and dated
- Alabama — Rate PAE 2026 payment options are time-of-day: 5.17¢/kWh weekday 10 a.
- Arizona — Set per utility, not statewide. APS: $0.05554/kWh. TEP: $0.0513/kWh, w
- Arkansas — There is no single statewide export number. Non-legacy exports are cre
- California — No single statewide export rate. Compensation is set by the CPUC Avoid
- Colorado — No single statewide dollar export rate. Under ordinary net metering, m
- Connecticut — Netting export rate is a formula, not a single statewide dollar figure
- Florida — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh export rate. Monthly net exports ar
- Georgia — 3.2188¢/kWh solar avoided cost for 2026, plus 4¢/kWh adder for RNR-Ins
- Hawaii — Hawaiian Electric Smart Renewable Energy Export rates for 2024-2026, i
- Illinois — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh rate. For new residential and small
- Indiana — Utility-specific EDG rates, not one statewide rate; the verified utili
- Kansas — There is no single statewide dollar rate. For systems operating under
- Kentucky — There is no single statewide export rate. Current published utility ex
- Louisiana — Avoided-cost export rates effective in 2026 are $0.0386407/kWh for Ent
- Maine — There is no single statewide export price. The kWh Credit Program prov
- Maryland — No single statewide export price: for the annual-accrual option, net e
- Massachusetts — No single statewide dollar-per-kWh rate. For ordinary qualifying solar
- Michigan — Utility- and rate-schedule-specific, not one statewide flat rate. DTE'
- Minnesota — There is no single statewide dollar export rate. Xcel's latest posted
- Missouri — Utility-specific avoided-fuel-cost/cogeneration rate, not a single sta
- Nevada — Tier 4 exports are credited at 75% of the applicable retail rate; Nort
- New Hampshire — There is no single statewide dollar-per-kWh rate: for small customer-g
- New Jersey — One-for-one retail-rate credit against delivered electricity during th
- New Mexico — There is no single statewide fixed export number in the cited rule. Ex
- New York — No single statewide $/kWh rate. The Value Stack is calculated from uti
- North Carolina — No single statewide export rate exists. For the current DEC NMB and RS
- Ohio — No single statewide dollar rate. Under the standard utility tariff, ex
- Oklahoma — There is no single statewide dollar export rate. Net excess is credite
- Oregon — Full retail rate for each rate component on the bill that uses kWh as
- Pennsylvania — No single statewide dollar rate: full retail kWh rate for monthly offs
- Rhode Island — There is no single statewide dollar headline rate. Renewable net-meter
- South Carolina — No single statewide export rate exists. Santee Cooper's DG-25 rider li
- Tennessee — NESolar Connect publishes seasonal base rates of $0.07363/kWh summer,
- Texas — No statewide rate. Published municipal examples include Austin Energy
- Utah — Schedule 137: 4.855 cents/kWh for exports in June through September; 4
- Vermont — The statewide blended residential base credit is $0.2071/kWh effective
- Virginia — No single statewide rate exists. APCo Rider N.M.S. II lists total avoi
- Washington — Applicable retail energy rate / kWh credit under the customer's utilit
- Wisconsin — Utility-specific. 2026 examples are WEPCO CGS-NM residential/secondary