SRP Retired Net Metering in November 2025 — What It Means for Arizona Solar Customers in 2026

In November 2025, Salt River Project retired traditional residential net metering. Every new rooftop solar customer in the SRP service area — Mesa, Tempe, Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, and the rest of the East Valley — now moves onto the Customer Generation Plan (CGP). The math for going solar on SRP in 2026 is different from what you'll find in most articles written before late 2025, and different from what APS customers see. Here's what actually changed and what it means if you're sizing a system right now.

What Was "Traditional" Net Metering on SRP?

Under traditional net metering, every kWh your solar system exported to the grid earned a credit at roughly the same rate you paid for grid electricity. Send 1 kWh to the grid at noon, pull 1 kWh from the grid at 8pm, and the bill net to zero. It was simple, it was generous, and it made small rooftop systems economically viable even for homes that were empty all day.

SRP has been winding down net metering in stages since 2015, when it added the original demand charge structure. The November 2025 change is the last step of that wind-down. The legacy export credit is gone for new customers. Existing solar customers are grandfathered on whatever terms they signed up for, for a set number of years — confirm the exact grandfather window directly with SRP if you installed before November 2025, because the specifics depend on when you interconnected.

What the Customer Generation Plan Actually Is

The Customer Generation Plan is SRP's replacement rate for residential solar customers. It keeps the E-27 time-of-use energy rates and demand charge structure but changes three things that matter:

• Export credit dropped to roughly $0.035/kWh. That's the new SRP buyback rate for kWh you push back to the grid. Compare that to APS's net billing export rate of roughly $0.076/kWh (nearly double) or to the roughly $0.10-$0.14/kWh you'll pay SRP for the same grid kWh later.
• Monthly service charge bumped to about $32/month for CGP customers, compared to the ~$20/month non-solar residential service charge. That's an extra ~$144/year before you consume a single kWh.
• Demand charges still apply. Adding solar does not reduce SRP's demand charge. If anything, without a battery, solar can make your demand peakworse: the sun drops at 6:30pm, your solar output collapses, but your AC is still pulling 5-8 kW at 7pm, and SRP logs that hour as your monthly peak at full demand-charge rates.

The net effect: a new SRP solar installation in 2026 looks financially weaker than the same installation did in 2023. Not worthless, not hopeless, but materially different. Use the SRP Bill Calculator to model your specific home with and without the CGP toggle flipped on — the gap between the two numbers is the cost of going solar on SRP under the new rules.

The Three Big Implications for 2026 Solar Sizing

1. Self-Consumption Matters More Than Ever

Every kWh you self-consume (use from your own panels as it's generated, without it ever touching the grid) avoids paying SRP's $0.07-$0.11/kWh energy rate. Every kWh you export earns only $0.035/kWh. That's a roughly 2-3x gap depending on whether the avoided usage would have been on-peak or off-peak. Under traditional net metering, exported and self-consumed kWh were worth the same. Under CGP, they aren't even close.

The practical implication: right-size, don't oversize. A system that produces exactly what your home consumes during the day is worth more than a larger system that overproduces and sends the surplus to the grid. The oversizing instinct built during the net metering era is now a net-negative financial move on SRP.

2. Batteries Become Mandatory for Full Economics

Without a battery, solar on SRP can only offset daytime consumption. Your 5-8pm on-peak demand still comes from the grid, and your demand charge is still set by whatever kW you pull during that window. A battery changes both parts of the math:

• Peak shaving. A battery that caps your on-peak grid draw at 5 kW on an otherwise 10 kW demand hour saves roughly $72/month in summer demand charges. Over 6 summer months, that's ~$435/year in demand-charge savings alone, independent of energy arbitrage.
• Avoiding the exports-are-cheap problem. Surplus daytime solar charges the battery instead of being exported at $0.035/kWh. That energy gets used in the evening at what would otherwise be $0.11/kWh on-peak grid rates — a ~$0.075/kWhimprovement on every charge/discharge cycle.

On SRP, a battery isn't a nice-to-have for resilience; it's the thing that makes new solar pencil out. See our best home batteries for Arizona 2026 roundup for SKU-level recommendations.

3. The APS/SRP Service-Area Decision Matters More

If you're buying a home and choosing between a Mesa address (SRP) and a Phoenix address (APS), the solar economics are now meaningfully different. APS's net billing export rate of ~$0.076/kWh is more than double SRP's CGP rate. APS has no demand charge. APS's on-peak window (4-7pm) is half as long as SRP's (2-8pm). We broke the full comparison down in our APS vs SRP for solar post — the short version is that APS is more forgiving for a solar-only install, and SRP is more rewarding for a solar+battery install if you actually add the battery.

If You Already Have SRP Solar: Grandfather Rules

If you interconnected your solar system before November 2025, you're on the legacy terms you signed up for. SRP has historically grandfathered existing solar customers for a set number of years from the interconnection date, with the exact length depending on the vintage of your plan. Two things worth doing:

1. Log into mysrp.com and find your plan details. Confirm what your export credit rate is right now, and when that rate sunsets. If your grandfather window is shorter than your battery payback period, that changes your plan.
2. Track your monthly bill closely for 12 months after November 2025. SRP has restructured demand charges and base rates in addition to the net metering change. Your grandfather protects the export credit, but it may not protect every single line item on the bill. Compare a November 2024 bill to a November 2025 bill line-by-line — if the change is bigger than expected, call SRP directly.

How Much Does This Change the ROI on a New Mesa or Tempe Install?

A rough before-and-after for a typical 2,000 sq ft East Valley home with an 8 kW system, 8 kW peak demand, and 1,800 kWh/month consumption:

Numbers are illustrative — run your own home through the SRP Bill Calculator for specifics.

The second row is the most important one. A right-sized solar-only system under CGP still produces meaningful savings — it's not a free lunch, but it's not a disaster either. The third row is where the numbers actually beat the old net metering era in absolute dollars, because the demand charge savings stack on top of the self-consumption value.

Bottom Line for SRP Customers in 2026

• Traditional net metering is gone. New SRP solar customers are on the Customer Generation Plan with a ~$0.035/kWh export credit and a ~$32/month service charge.
• Don't oversize. Match system output to your daytime consumption. Surplus exports are worth about a third of what they were worth in 2023.
• Plan for a battery from day one. The demand charge savings and the ability to shift surplus into evening on-peak hours is what makes the math work under CGP.
• Grandfathered customers: check your plan sunset date. The grandfather window isn't forever and the length depends on your interconnection year.
• The APS/SRP gap widened. If you have a choice of service area, APS is now more forgiving for solar-only. SRP rewards solar-plus-battery more than it penalizes solar-only — if you actually add the battery.

Run your own numbers in the SRP Bill Calculator and compare to the APS Bill Calculator if you're near a service area border. Questions or corrections? Email contact@azenergyhub.com — we update this post as SRP publishes more detail on the CGP rider.