Net Metering in Kansas

The State of Kansas adopted the Net Metering and Easy Connection Act in May 2009 (see K.S.A. 66-1263 through 66-1271).The Act, amended in 2014, established net metering for customers of the state's investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Under Kansas' net metering policy, small-scale generators receive credit for the electricity they generate. The Act was further amended in 2024 when the Kansas Legislature passed HB 2527 which added and amended definitions, expanded the threshold capacity for IOUs to operate interconnection agreements, and made changes to permissible export generating capacities as well as the methodology for monthly billing calculations.

In July 2010, the Kansas Corporation Commission adopted rules (K.A.R. 82-17-1 through 82-17-5) to implement the statute's net-metering standards. These rules include additional protection for the utility in the event of disruptive problems to the utility's system caused by a net-metered facility.

Eligibility

The state’s two IOUs—Evergy and Empire District—are required to offer net metering and to provide eligible customers who are in good standing with the IOU, with a bi-directional meter (at no cost to the customer) on a first-come, first-served basis until the rated generating capacity of all net-metered systems equals 2% of the utilities peak demand in the prior year, until July 1, 2024 at which time it increases by 1% each July until 2027 when it reaches 5% of the utility’s historic highest annual peak since 2014.

Electric cooperatives and municipal electric providers are not mandated to offer net metering by statute, but many have elected under their boards and membership to enact some form of net metering.  Contact your local electric cooperative or municipal electric provider to obtain the details of their offerings. 

Customer-generator means the owner or operator of a net metered facility which:

  • is powered by a renewable energy resource;
  • is located on a premises owned, operated, leased or otherwise controlled by the customer-generator;
  • is interconnected and operates in a parallel phase and synchronization with an affected utility and is in compliance with the safety standards established by the affected utility;
  • is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer-generator’s own electrical energy requirements; and
  • contains a mechanism, approved by the utility, that automatically disables the unit and interrupts the flow of electricity back onto the supplier’s electricity lines in the event that service to the customer-generator is interrupted.

Renewable energy resources include:

  • wind;
  • solar thermal sources;
  • photovoltaic cells and panels;
  • dedicated crops grown for energy production;
  • cellulosic agricultural residues;
  • plant residues;
  • methane from landfills or from wastewater treatment;
  • clean and untreated wood products such as pellets;
  • new and existing hydropower;
  • fuel cells using hydrogen produced by one of the above-named renewable energy resources; and
  • energy storage that is connected to any renewable generation by means of energy storage equipment including, but not limited to, batteries, fly wheels, compressed air storage and pumped hydro

Net metering is limited to relatively small generators.

For customer-generators that began operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility prior to July 1, 2014:

  • Residential customer-generators may export electricity subject to net metering up to 25 kilowatts; and
  • Commercial, industrial, school, local government, state government, federal government, agricultural and institutional customer-generators may export electricity subject to net metering up to 200 kilowatts.

For customer-generators that begin operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility after July 1, 2014:

  • Utilities shall allow customer-generators to export electricity subject to net metering up to 150 kilowatts alternating current.

For customer-generators that begin operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility on or after July 1, 2026:

  • The generating capacity of a customer-generator's renewable energy resource shall not exceed export capacity by more than 50% - not including any storage devices (including electric vehicles) unless the storage device can add export capacity and is not part of an export limited system;
  • For customer-generators that operate a generation resource designed to export an amount of power that differs from the system's generating capacity:
    • the customer shall own and maintain any necessary export limiting device, which the utility shall have the option to require a witness test on;
    • cannot increase the export capacity of the system without the utility’s approval;
    • must allow the utility to perform period witness tests;
    • and agree to cease operation of the system if the device fails to properly limit the export power for more than 15 minutes during a single event, until the device can be repaired or reprogrammed.

Customer-generators shall appropriately size their generation export capacity to their expected load as follows:

  • Divide the customer-generator's historic consumption in kilowatt hours for the previous 12-month period by 8,760 and divide that quotient by a capacity factor of 0.144; or if the customer-generator does not have historic consumption data that adequately reflects the customer's consumption at such premises, the customer-generator's historic consumption for the previous 12-month period shall be 7.15 kilowatt-hours per square foot of conditioned space; and
  • Round up the quotient calculated above to the nearest standard size as follows: Round alternating current between 2 and 20 kilowatts to the nearest two kilowatts alternating current power increment, and round alternating current between 20 and 150 kilowatts to the nearest five kilowatts alternating current power increment.

Customer-generators shall appropriately size their generation to their expected load.

Net Excess Generation

Energy generated by a customer-generator in excess of their monthly consumption is considered net excess generation (NEG).

For any customer-generator that began operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility prior to July 1, 2014:

  • NEG shall be credited forward from month-to-month at a ratio of one-to-one against the customer-generator's energy consumption in subsequent months.
  • Any NEG credit remaining in a net metering customer's account on March 31 of each year shall expire.

For any customer-generator that began operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility on and after July 1, 2014:

  • At the end of each billing period, NEG shall be credited to the customer at a rate of at least 100% of the utility's monthly system average cost of energy per kilowatt hour.

For any customer-generator that began operating a renewable energy resource under an interconnect agreement with the utility on or after July 1, 2024, and receives service on an optional time varying rate:

  • The utility shall measure the net electrical energy exported or supplied during the billing period for each of the time of use periods established by the applicable time-varying rate schedule that applies to the customer-generator's rate class in accordance with normal metering practices for customers that take service on time-varying rates in that same rate class;
  • electricity supplied by the utility shall be netted against the electricity exported by the customer-generator during each applicable time of use period;
  •  if the electricity supplied by the utility exceeds the electricity exported by the customer-generator during any time of use period, the customer-generator shall be billed for the net electricity supplied by the utility in each such time of use period as well as all other charges as such charges are applied to non-customer-generators in the same rate class;
  • and if the electricity exported by the customer-generator exceeds the electricity supplied by the utility during any time of use period, the customer-generator shall be credited at a rate of at least 100% of the utility's monthly system average cost of energy per kilowatt hour, with any net credit, and net of all other charges as such charges are applied to non-customer-generators in the same rate class, applied to the next billing period.

For all Non-TOU customer-generators, starting January 1, 2030:

  • At the end of each billing period, NEG shall be credited to the customer at a rate of 100% of the utility's monthly system average cost of energy per kilowatt hour.

Utility Reporting

By March 1 of each year, utilities are required to submit an annual report that includes the following information about the net-metered facilities in their service territories: type of generation resources, zip code, first year of interconnection, any excess kilowatt-hours that expired at the end of the previous year, generator size, and number/type of meters.

K.S.A. 66-1271 provides that each kilowatt of nameplate capacity of all net metered facilities shall count toward the affected utility's compliance with Kansas's Renewable Energy Standard (K.S.A. 66-1256, 66-1257, and 66-1259).  Renewable energy credits (from energy produced by a net metered facility, for example) that a utility allocates toward its attainment of Kansas’s renewable energy standard cannot be sold or used for any other purpose.

More Details

More details about utility compliance can be found in these KCC dockets:

See utility websites for additional information about net metering policies and interconnection guidelines: