2025 Net Metering with Pacific Power in Jackson & Josephine Counties

Net Metering in Southern Oregon Since 1999

Net metering has been a part of Southern Oregon’s energy landscape since September 1st, 1999, providing homeowners in Jackson and Josephine counties a straightforward way to make solar energy work financially in their favor. Thanks to Oregon’s generous 1:1 credit ratio—the highest in the nation—residents receive full value for every excess kilowatt-hour their solar panels produce regardless of when, significantly reducing electricity bills and encouraging sustainable living.

How Net Metering Works

Net metering functions like an energy bank. During summer months with long, sunny days, residential solar systems often produce more electricity than the home uses. This energy overproduction is fed back into Pacific Power’s grid, typically routed to your closest neighbors, effectively spinning your electrical meter backward. Pacific Power then credits homeowners on a one-to-one basis at the end of each monthly billing cycle, storing these credits for use during winter months that experience seasonal solar energy production lulls.

The primary idea here is to build your solar power system around your annual usage. For example, Sunshine Solar designs systems to overproduce during summer knowing they will underproduce during winter – and thus cancel out the predictable deficit. It’s a straightforward system that directly benefits the consumer, resulting in the ability to offset 100% of annual energy usage.

Why Pacific Power Wants to Make 1:1 Net Metering Controversial

Pacific Power, like many utilities, faces tension over net metering. While solar energy directly contributes to cleaner air and aligns with Oregon’s environmental goals, it challenges the traditional utility revenue model. Pacific Power argues that 1:1 net metering allows residential solar customers to benefit from infrastructure they aren’t compensating PacifiCorp for. In this sense, power companies argue that solar customers are subsidized in favorable ways that power companies aren’t and therefore Oregon should modify the ratio.

However, numerous studies demonstrate that the 1:1 net metering ratio broadens community adoption resulting in environmental benefits that outweigh power company concerns, making the controversy more about economics than equity.

The Net Metering Calendar

The net metering calendar in Oregon runs annually from April to March, coinciding closely with solar productivity cycles. This calendar is beneficial because it allows homeowners to accumulate credits all throughout the higher solar energy producing spring and summer and fall months to maximize energy credit “banking.” Since the primary opportunities for accumulation precede low-producing winter months, residential solar owners have “banked” kilowatt hours of electricity to draw from by design.

At the end of each March, Pacific Power reconciles residential accounts, noting excess credits homeowners have accumulated. Produce

Unused Energy Credits go to Low-Income Programs

A unique benefit in Oregon is that any unused energy credits don’t simply disappear—they contribute directly to local low-income energy assistance programs. This means homeowners not only reduce their personal electricity costs but also support vulnerable community members by donating their surplus energy credits. It’s an innovative and socially responsible aspect of the state’s net metering policy.

How to Track & Monitor Your Energy Credits

Tracking your energy credits with Pacific Power is simple and user-friendly. Customers can log into Pacific Power’s online portal or use their mobile app to monitor energy production, consumption, and accumulated credits for each monthly statement. This transparency ensures homeowners get the maximum financial benefit from their system throughout the year.

Get In Now to “Grandfather In” Your Residence

With utilities lobbying to modify net metering terms in their favor, securing your system today guarantees you are “grandfathered” into current favorable conditions, like the 1:1 net metering ratio before the ratio changes to something less favorable. This is the best ratio in the country. Oregon law protects existing solar customers already in the program from future adverse policy changes, ensuring that homeowners who invest in solar now will continue benefiting from current net metering rates for decades. This protection adds urgency—and value—to going solar sooner rather than later.