BC regulation
Is net metering going away in BC? What actually changed on 1 July 2026
No. BC Hydro’s net metering program closed to new applicants on 1 July 2026. It was not cancelled. Rate Schedule 1289 still runs for everyone already on it, for ten years from their own service start date.
By Majid Arabi, founder of Raincoast Solar · Reviewed July 2026
What replaced it, for anyone connecting from that date onward, is Rate Schedule 2289 — Self-Generation Service, which buys your exported energy at 10¢ per kWh instead of banking it. If you already have solar, nothing changed on 1 July; if you were about to install, the export side of it did.
Verified 27 July 2026 against BCUC Order G-64-26, the RS 1289 tariff sheet and BC Hydro’s rate-update pages. Where a source is silent, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
What is actually gone, and what replaced it
The BC Hydro net metering change was a closure, not a cancellation, and that distinction is the entire answer. A closed rate schedule stops accepting new customers and carries on serving the ones it has. A cancelled one stops existing. RS 1289 was closed.
Most coverage of the BC Hydro solar changes names one rate schedule. Three moved on the same day, and the third is the one almost nobody writes about.
| Rate schedule | What happened | Who it covers |
|---|---|---|
| RS 1289 — Net Metering Service | Closed to new applicants. Not repealed, not cancelled, still in force. | Everyone interconnected before 1 July 2026, for 10 years from their own service start date. |
| RS 2289 — Self-Generation Service | Opened. Exports bought at 10¢ per kWh, settled every billing cycle. | Every new self-generating customer — residential or general service — from 1 July 2026 on. |
| RS 2290 — Community Generation Service | Opened. Also 10¢ per kWh, with a net injection limit of 2 MW per facility. | Shared projects: up to 24 kW per residential participant and 100 kW per commercial one. |
Sources: BCUC Order G-64-26, the RS 1289 tariff sheet and BC Hydro’s customer generation rate-update pages, all read 27 July 2026.
RS 2290 is there because not every generator sits behind one customer’s meter: a strata roof, a co-op, a farm, a First Nations project.
The two schedules that replaced net metering are compared row by row on our RS 1289 vs RS 2289 comparison, and RS 2289 itself has a page of its own.
What it means if you already have solar
In the short run, nothing. Your rate, your credit, your annual settlement and your anniversary date are all as they were. Grandfathering here is not a promise the utility might renege on; it is a rate schedule that was never repealed.
Two details decide how long it lasts, and both are routinely got wrong.
- It is ten years, not twenty. BC Hydro applied for twenty; the Commission granted ten. Material still saying twenty is quoting the application rather than the decision.
- The clock is yours, not everyone’s. It runs from the initial net metering service start date (per customer, not a single cliff date) — so two neighbours who connected a year apart come off RS 1289 a year apart.
At the end of it the change happens by itself. BC Hydro’s wording: “Once those 10 years have passed, they will automatically be transferred to the self-generation service rate (Rate Schedule 2289).” Nothing to apply for, nothing to sign, and no published route to an extension.
Whether anything else can end a grandfathered rate early — an expansion, a meter change — is a question we handle separately.
The question we are asked most is answered nowhere on BC Hydro’s site and squarely in the order: “The Panel finds it is appropriate that customers who move into premises with an existing generating facility are not eligible for the transition period.” One edge is still open — moving in before 1 April 2026 — and the comparison article sets it out.
What it means if you were about to install
You will be on RS 2289. In practice that means four things:
- Exports are bought, not banked. 10¢ per kWh, paid each billing cycle rather than netted once a year.
- Self-consumption is untouched. Energy your house uses as it is generated still offsets consumption at the retail rate.
- The netting interval is instantaneous. A kilowatt-hour is either used on site at that moment or exported at it; there is no monthly averaging that lets one cover the other.
- The size limit is a net injection limit of 100 kilowatts per phase after serving the customer’s load. It is not a cap on the array’s nameplate rating, which is what RS 1289 capped.
Together those change what a well-designed system looks like. On the tiered residential rate as of 27 July 2026, Tier 1 energy costs 11.87¢ per kWh and Tier 2 costs 14.08¢, against 10¢ for an export: a kilowatt-hour used in the house is worth 1.87¢ more than one exported in Tier 1, and 4.08¢ more in Tier 2. Under annual netting that gap did not matter. Now it is the design problem.
Is solar still worth it?
Usually — and less automatically than before. Exports earn less; what you use yourself is still worth the retail rate, and on most roofs that is the larger half of the output. Whether it pays now turns on your consumption pattern and whether you store any of it — a calculation rather than a rule of thumb, and one we work through in our full analysis of whether solar is worth it in BC.
What has not changed
- RS 1289 itself. Closed, not repealed, and unchanged in its terms for everyone on it.
- What your own consumption is worth. Energy generated and used on site still offsets consumption at the retail rate under both schedules.
- The rebates. BC Hydro’s solar and battery rebate program is running — $1,000 per kW to a $5,000 maximum for a single-family home, with the rate consequence above attached.
- Your equipment and your interconnection. Nothing about the array, the inverter or the approval process changed on 1 July. This was a rate change, not a technical one.
- How much sun falls on your roof. Worth saying plainly, because the coverage of this change has been alarming enough to suggest otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
Did BC end net metering?
No. BC Hydro closed Rate Schedule 1289 to new applicants on 1 July 2026. Closing a rate schedule and ending it are not the same act: RS 1289 is still in force and still governs every customer who was on it that morning. What ended is the ability to join.
I already have solar — is net metering ending in BC for me?
Not yet, and not on a date shared with anyone else. You stay on RS 1289 for 10 years measured from the initial net metering service start date (per customer, not a single cliff date). The one thing that can move you sooner is a solar rebate.
Does accepting a BC Hydro solar rebate automatically put me on RS 2289?
Yes, if you are on RS 1289 now — and the move is permanent: “Once an Eligible Customer begins receiving service under Rate Schedule 2289, they cannot under any circumstances revert to or receive service under Rate Schedule 1289.”
There is one exception. A customer who received a rebate before the BCUC Order G-64-26 decision of 24 March 2026 was given “If you received your rebate prior to the BCUC decision on March 24, 2026, you will have a one-time opportunity to repay your rebate and remain on the net metering rate (Rate Schedule 1289) for up to 10 years from the initial net metering service start date.” No deadline for that option has been published. Ask BC Hydro for the cut-off in writing rather than assuming it is still open.
What is BC Hydro’s self-generation program, and is it the same as net metering?
Self-Generation Service is the name of Rate Schedule 2289, the rate that replaced net metering for new customers. It is not the same thing. Net metering nets energy against energy — a kilowatt-hour exported cancelled a kilowatt-hour imported. Self-generation prices the two flows separately: your exports are bought at 10¢ per kWh and settled every billing cycle, while the energy you use in the house still offsets the retail rate.
What happens at the end of the ten years?
You move across automatically: BC Hydro transfers you to the self-generation rate, with nothing to apply for and nothing to sign. From that day you are an RS 2289 customer on RS 2289 terms. No mechanism for extending the ten years has been published.
Get the current numbers for your roof
The honest answer to “is it still worth it” is different for a south-facing roof in Surrey and a shaded one in North Vancouver, and it changed on 1 July for one of them more than the other. Tell us your address and roughly what you spend on power, and we will model it against RS 2289 as it stands today — not against the rate that closed.
This page describes BC Hydro Rate Schedules 1289, 2289 and 2290 as published on 27 July 2026. Figures come from BCUC Order G-64-26, the RS 1289 tariff sheet and BC Hydro’s own rate and rebate pages, and are stated before GST and rider adjustments. Where a source is silent — applications in progress at the closure date — this page says so rather than inferring. Rate schedules change; confirm anything you intend to act on with BC Hydro directly. Raincoast Solar designs and sells solar and battery systems and subcontracts installation to licensed electrical partners. This is general information, not financial advice.