Solar in Connecticut: how the rules work
How Connecticut credits the power solar panels send back to the grid, what homes there pay for electricity, and what to check when a home with solar is bought or sold.
How exported power is credited
Power sent to the grid is credited at the full retail rate (kWh for kWh), at least within each billing period.
Since Jan 2022, new residential solar uses the RRES program. Under its Netting Tariff, monthly net exports are credited as dollar credits at the customer's full retail rate (including supply) for 20 years, can be cashed out only when the account closes, and come with a small per-kWh incentive; the alternative Buy-All tariff pays a fixed rate for all output. Public Act 26-127 (signed July 15, 2026) extends the residential solar program through 2035 (it was set to expire in 2027) and directs PURA to set up a successor with cost controls; successor compensation rates have not been set. Legacy net-metering customers (pre-RRES) are grandfathered through Dec 31, 2039.
What changes for a home with solar
A savings estimate that counts exported power at the full retail rate matches how exports are credited here. Where only month-end surplus earns a lower rate, homes that use most of their power themselves come closest to that estimate.
Electricity here costs about 28.0¢ per kWh (2026) and has risen about 3.8% a year over the last decade. A lease or PPA escalator above that pace makes the solar payment rise faster than utility rates have.
When a home with solar is sold in Connecticut
- Owned outright: proof it is paid off, the warranties, and the utility’s interconnection or net-metering agreement, which has to move into the buyer’s name.
- Loan: a payoff letter, and whether the buyer can assume the loan. Many solar loans are secured by a UCC-1 fixture filing that title will find.
- Lease or PPA: the transfer process and how long approval takes, the buyer’s credit check, the current payment or rate and its yearly increase, and a buyout quote.
- Every case: whether the export-credit terms above stay with the home after the sale, and the last 12 months of production from the monitoring app.
Have the solar contract for a Connecticut home?
Upload it and get a letter-graded report card: price, production, payment changes, value and transfer terms, measured against Connecticut’s rates and rules.
Grade a solar contractSources
- www.uinet.com/documents/d/uinet/rres-program-manual (2026-01-01)
- www.verogy.com/what-happened-to-net-metering-in-connecticut/
- portal.ct.gov/governor/news/press-releases/2026/07-2026/governor-lamont-signs-legislation- (2026-07-15)
- Electricity prices: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B (2026) and EIA state annual averages 2014–2024
- Installed price: EnergySage marketplace, September 2026