MidAmerican Energy solar export rate
What MidAmerican Energy pays for power exported from rooftop solar in Iowa, with the source and the date it was checked.
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 rules that apply to MidAmerican Energy
The state framework sets the default. Where MidAmerican Energy pays something different, the utility tariff governs and is what the card above reports.
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Regulator | The Iowa Utilities Commission (formerly Iowa Utilities Board) approves the utility tariffs and oversees the applicable electric rules. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
Other Iowa utilities
- IPL (Alliant Energy)Formula basedInflow-Outflow Rate Code IO: retail volumetric rate, including applicable volumetric rider char
- Black Hills Energy IowaUnverifiedNo Iowa electric export rate identified; Black Hills Energy’s reviewed Iowa regulatory tariff p