Solar in West Virginia: how the rules work
How West Virginia 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 a set share of the retail rate, below what the home pays for power it buys.
In its Aug/Sept 2025 base-rate order, the PSC ended 1:1 retail credit for new Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers. New residential net-metering customers get about 12.4 cents/kWh for excess generation (commercial about 10 cents), described as 67-75% of retail; the 0.71 share is the midpoint. The utilities had sought a 5.74-cent wholesale rate and PSC staff proposed 12.4 cents. Grandfathering: applications by Mar 1, 2026 keep 1:1 retail if the system is completed by Sept 1, 2026 (residential) or Mar 1, 2027 (commercial); existing customers keep 1:1. Mon Power/Potomac Edison (FirstEnergy, the other large WV utility) settled in Mar 2024: new applicants from Jan 1, 2025 get 9.34 cents/kWh for residential exports, while customers who applied by Dec 31, 2024 keep 1:1 retail for 25 years. No separate solar fixed charge was found.
What changes for a home with solar
A savings estimate that assumes full retail credit for exported power overstates the value of that power for systems on the current rules. Power used in the home still offsets the full retail rate.
Older systems are often grandfathered on earlier, better terms for a set number of years. Which rules a particular system is on depends on its interconnection date, stated in the note above.
Electricity here costs about 15.5¢ per kWh (2026) and has risen about 4.9% 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 West Virginia
- 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 West Virginia home?
Upload it and get a letter-graded report card: price, production, payment changes, value and transfer terms, measured against West Virginia’s rates and rules.
Grade a solar contractSources
- westvirginiawatch.com/2025/09/02/public-service-commission-denies-bulk-of-aep-rate-increas (2025-09-02)
- solarunitedneighbors.org/resources/net-metering-in-west-virginia/
- mountainstatespotlight.org/2025/06/29/power-companies-slash-solar/ (2025-06-29)
- www.dominionpost.com/2024/03/27/psc-approves-reduced-mon-power-potomac-edison-base-rate-hi (2024-03-27)
- Electricity prices: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B (2026) and EIA state annual averages 2014–2024
- Installed price: EnergySage marketplace, September 2026