BC regulation
RS 1289 vs RS 2289: the two BC Hydro rates, side by side
Two BC Hydro rate schedules govern a home that generates its own electricity. One closed to new customers on 1 July 2026 and the other opened the same day, so nobody gets to choose between them: this is a comparison between what an existing customer has and what a new one gets.
By Majid Arabi, founder of Raincoast Solar · Reviewed July 2026
Verified 27 July 2026 against BCUC Order G-64-26, the RS 1289 tariff sheet and BC Hydro’s self-generation rate pages. Where a source is silent, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
The one-line difference
The names matter. You will see this comparison written as net metering vs net billing, which is the industry’s shorthand rather than BC Hydro’s: the schedules are named Net Metering Service and Self-Generation Service. The second is technology-neutral: it never mentions solar, and applies the same way to wind or micro-hydro behind the meter.
RS 1289 is closed, not repealed: it remains in force for every customer already on it. The rate that replaced it is covered in full on our RS 2289 pillar page.
The full comparison
| RS 1289 — Net Metering Service | RS 2289 — Self-Generation Service | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Closed to new customers on 1 July 2026. Still in force for everyone already on it. | Open. The rate for every new self-generating customer from 1 July 2026. |
| Who can join | Nobody new. Availability required a customer who “has had their Net Metering Application for Service under this Rate Schedule accepted by BC Hydro in writing and has received Interconnection Approval”. | Residential and general service customers who generate part of their own electricity and stay connected to the grid. |
| What an exported kWh is worth | A kilowatt-hour, banked. Any balance left at the anniversary date was cashed out at an Energy Price recalculated each 1 January from prior-year daily average Mid-Columbia market prices. | 10¢, in dollars, on the bill. |
| When it is settled | Once a year, at the customer’s anniversary date. | Every billing cycle, with an instantaneous netting interval. |
| How long it lasts | 10 years from the initial net metering service start date. | No end date published. The 10¢ price is fixed until a review, and there is no per-customer lock-in. |
| Size limit | “Has a nameplate rating of not more than 100 kilowatts” | A net injection limit of 100 kilowatts per phase, measured after the customer’s own load is served. |
| Transferable on sale? | No. A new occupant does not inherit the transition period — a Panel finding, not an inference from the tariff. | Nothing to transfer. It is the open rate, so a new owner takes service on it like any other self-generating customer. |
Sources: the RS 1289 tariff sheet, BC Hydro’s self-generation rate pages and BCUC Order G-64-26. The last row comes from the order at section 2.6 rather than from either tariff sheet, both of which are silent on a change of owner. See Which one you are on below.
Two rows are routinely misread. The size limits are not the same measurement: RS 1289 capped the generating facility’s nameplate rating, a fact about the equipment; RS 2289 caps net injection per phase, what reaches the grid once the house has taken what it needs. A bare “100 kW cap” is wrong under at least one of them.
And the ten-year clock is per customer, not one date: it runs from the initial net metering service start date (per customer, not a single cliff date), so two neighbours who installed a year apart come off RS 1289 a year apart.
What each row means in practice
The unit of credit changed from energy to money. Under RS 1289 a banked kilowatt-hour was worth whatever a kilowatt-hour cost on the day you used it, so the credit tracked the retail rate automatically. Under RS 2289 it is 10¢ and stays 10¢ until the Commission reviews it. Energy you consume on site still offsets the retail rate under both; what changed is the value of the exported kilowatt-hour.
The gap between those numbers is the thing to look at. On the tiered residential rate, energy costs 11.87¢ per kWh in Tier 1 and 14.08¢ in Tier 2, against 10¢ for an export: a kilowatt-hour kept in the house is worth 1.87¢ more than the same kilowatt-hour exported in Tier 1, and 4.08¢ more in Tier 2.
The bank is the difference a household actually feels. On this coast an array runs a large surplus from May to August and very little in December; RS 1289’s annual reckoning let the first pay for the second. RS 2289 settles every cycle, so December is a separate arithmetic problem. Nothing about the array changed; the accounting period did.
Sizing logic changed direction. Under annual netting the sensible target was total yearly consumption, because timing did not matter. Under RS 2289 timing is the whole game: the marginal panel on an already-large array mostly exports, earning 10¢ rather than displacing 11.87¢ or 14.08¢. It still pays, and it pays less than the first panel did.
Grandfathering is a term, not a guarantee in perpetuity. The Commission granted 10 years, not the twenty BC Hydro applied for, so material still saying twenty is quoting the application rather than the decision. What ends the ten years, early or otherwise, is its own subject.
Which one you are on, and how to check
Four rules decide it, and they are all published:
- Interconnected before 1 July 2026 → RS 1289. The schedule required an accepted Net Metering Application and Interconnection Approval; if both predate the closure, you are on it.
- Interconnected on or after 1 July 2026 → RS 2289. There is no longer a route onto net metering.
- A solar rebate moves you. BC Hydro’s wording: “If you received a solar rebate, you will be moved to the new self-generation rate (Rate Schedule 2289) when it begins.”
- The move is one-way. The rule is absolute: “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.”
The third rule has an exception with a gap in it. A customer who received a rebate before the BCUC Order G-64-26 decision 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: BC Hydro’s page states it in the future tense with no date attached, and the only source naming one cites that same page. Do not assume the window is open; do not assume it has closed.
Those two documents are the record. Between them the acceptance letter and the interconnection approval show which schedule you were put on and when the ten-year clock started. If you cannot find them, ask BC Hydro in writing and keep the reply.
Why the change happened
Briefly, and without commentary. BC Hydro applied to close net metering to new customers and open a self-generation rate in its place. The BC Utilities Commission approved the change with modifications, the ten-year grandfathering period among them. The decision is BCUC Order G-64-26, dated 24 March 2026; the new schedules took effect on 1 July 2026. The decision date is not the in-force date, and material that treats it as one is describing a rate that did not exist yet.
On how long 10¢ lasts, the Panel’s own finding is the thing to quote: the Energy Price is “The Panel finds it reasonable for the Energy Price to be fixed until there is a review of BC Hydro’s evaluation report, as this will provide a period of stability for customers while allowing the Energy Price to be revisited in the future.” BC Hydro must file that evaluation report by 30 April 2030 — a filing deadline that could trigger a review, not a date on which the price changes and not a five-year term. What that means for a payback calculation is a separate question.
Whether the change was fair or necessary is not ours to characterise. The Commission’s reasons are public and longer than this article; anyone who wants the argument should read them rather than our summary of it.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between RS 1289 and RS 2289?
RS 1289 banked your exported energy as energy and settled it once a year. RS 2289 buys your exported energy for 10¢ per kWh and settles it every billing cycle. Who can join, how long it lasts and how the size limit is measured all follow from that. RS 1289 closed to new customers on 1 July 2026; RS 2289 opened the same day.
Is net metering gone in BC?
No. RS 1289 is closed to new customers, not repealed. Everyone already on it stays on it, on the terms they already have, until 10 years have passed from their initial net metering service start date. What is gone is the ability to join it.
What is net billing vs net metering?
They are industry names for two settlement designs. Net metering nets energy against energy: a kilowatt-hour out cancels a kilowatt-hour in. Net billing prices the two flows separately, buying your exports at a set price and billing your imports at the retail rate, so the reckoning happens in dollars. People search for BC Hydro net billing and land on RS 2289, whose name in the tariff is Self-Generation Service.
Is the 10¢ per kWh export credit good or bad compared with what I pay for power?
Compare it with the retail rate. On the tiered residential rate as of 27 July 2026, Tier 1 energy costs 11.87¢ per kWh and Tier 2 costs 14.08¢, while an export earns 10¢. A kilowatt-hour used in the house is worth 1.87¢ more than the same kilowatt-hour exported in Tier 1, and 4.08¢ more in Tier 2.
Against the old RS 1289 credit there is no comparison to draw: surplus was banked as energy rather than priced, so there is no single old number to hold up against the new one.
Under RS 2289, can I bank summer credits to use in winter?
No. The bank was what made summer carry winter, and RS 2289 does not have one. Each billing cycle stands alone: a kilowatt-hour exported in July is paid at 10¢ in July. Under RS 1289 it sat in an energy balance until your anniversary date, which on this coast is the difference between a summer surplus offsetting a December bill and not offsetting it.
If I sell my house, does the new owner keep RS 1289?
No. Nothing on BC Hydro’s pages says so, which is why this was long treated as unanswerable, but the order that closed RS 1289 settles it: “The Panel finds it is appropriate that customers who move into premises with an existing generating facility are not eligible for the transition period.” The Commission’s reasoning is that a transition exists to protect the customer who made the investment, not the address — so a buyer takes self-generation service on RS 2289 rather than inheriting whatever is left of the seller’s ten years.
One edge is still unsettled. BC Hydro’s proposal excluded people who move in “after April 1, 2026”; the Panel’s finding, as printed, does not repeat that date, so whether somebody who moved in before it is caught has not been decided. If that is you, get BC Hydro’s position in writing before completion.
Not sure which schedule you’re on? Send us a bill and we’ll tell you
Send a recent BC Hydro bill and two dates: when your interconnection was approved, and whether you took a solar rebate. Those three things together settle it. If they do not, we will tell you that instead of guessing, and help you put the question to BC Hydro in writing.
This page compares BC Hydro Rate Schedules 1289 and 2289 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 pages, and are stated before GST and rider adjustments. Where a source is silent — how a schedule is shown on a bill — this page says so rather than inferring. The row on a property sale comes from the order, not the tariff. 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.