On 1 July 2026 BC Hydro stopped accepting new customers onto net metering and opened a new rate in its place. If you already have solar, almost nothing about your bill changed. If you are about to install it, one detail changed the arithmetic completely — not what you are paid for exported power, but when it is counted.
Verified 27 July 2026 against BCUC Order G-64-26 and BC Hydro’s published rate pages. Every figure below comes from those sources.
What Rate Schedule 2289 is, in one paragraph
Rate Schedule 2289 is BC Hydro’s Self-Generation Service: the rate that applies to a customer who generates some of their own electricity and stays connected to the grid. The BC Utilities Commission approved it in BCUC Order G-64-26, dated 24 March 2026, and it took effect on 1 July 2026. It pays 10¢ per kWh for energy you export to the grid, it settles that credit every billing cycle rather than once a year, and it sets a net injection limit of 100 kilowatts per phase after serving the customer’s load. Everything else on this page follows from those three facts.
One date trap before anything else: 24 March 2026 is the decision date, not the in-force date. The BCUC ruled in March; the rate began on 1 July. Anything you read that says the rules changed in March, or in April, is quoting an earlier and now-superseded application.
What changed on 1 July 2026, and what did not
Net metering closed
RS 1289, the Net Metering Service, stopped accepting new customers. Existing participants stay on it.
RS 2289 opened
Self-Generation Service became the rate for every new self-generating customer, at 10¢ per kWh exported.
RS 2290 opened too
Community Generation Service, for shared projects up to 2 MW, arrived the same day and has had almost no coverage at all.
Alongside those, two mechanics changed that matter more than the headline price. Settlement moved from annual to every billing cycle, and the netting interval moved from an annual reckoning to instantaneous. The size limit also changed shape: RS 1289 capped nameplate capacity at 100 kW, while RS 2289 caps net injection at 100 kW per phase, measured after your own load is served.
What did not change: the equipment, the permits, the electrical inspection, the interconnection application, or the retail rates you pay for the power you buy.
How the settlement mechanic actually works
Under the old net metering rate, your meter counted in both directions and the arithmetic was done on the totals. If you generated 900 kWh in a period and used 1,500 kWh, you were billed for 600 kWh — and it made no difference whether your own power was consumed at noon while the array was producing or at 10 p.m. from the grid. Surplus banked as kilowatt-hours and carried forward, and whatever was left at your anniversary date was cashed out at a price BC Hydro recalculated each 1 January from the prior year’s daily average Mid-Columbia market prices.
Under RS 2289, the arithmetic happens at the instant it happens. BC Hydro’s own wording: “Customers will be able to offset their consumption with their generation, i.e. at the retail rate, applying an instantaneous netting interval.” If your array is producing 3 kW while your house draws 1 kW, then in that moment 1 kW is self-consumed and offsets the retail rate, and 2 kW is exported and earns 10¢. There is no bank. There is no annual true-up.
| RS 1289 — closed 1 July 2026 | RS 2289 — in force | |
|---|---|---|
| When exports are counted | On the period totals | Instantaneously, as they occur |
| Credit unit | Kilowatt-hours, banked | Dollars, on each bill |
| Settlement | Once a year, at the anniversary date | Every billing cycle |
| Export price | Recalculated each 1 January from Mid-Columbia prices | 10¢ per kWh, fixed until reviewed |
| Can summer carry winter? | Yes — that was the point of the bank | No |
| Size limit | 100 kW nameplate | 100 kW net injection per phase, after load |
The consequence is short enough to state in one line: you can no longer bank summer sunshine against a winter bill. A kWh exported in July earns 10¢ in July. It is not held against December, when this coast generates a fraction of what it does in summer and consumes considerably more.
The export credit, and what it is worth against what you pay
Search for a solar export credit in BC and 10¢ per kWh is the number you land on. On its own it means nothing. It means something against the price of a kWh you would otherwise have bought — so here are both, from BC Hydro’s published residential rates as of 27 July 2026.
| What happens to the kWh | Worth | Vs. exporting |
|---|---|---|
| Exported to the grid (RS 2289) | 10¢ | — |
| Used on site, tiered rate 1101 Tier 1 | 11.87¢ | +1.87¢ |
| Used on site, tiered rate 1101 Tier 2 | 14.08¢ | +4.08¢ |
| Used on site, flat rate 1151 | 12.70¢ | +2.70¢ |
Tier 1 applies to the first 22.1918 kWh per day; Tier 2 to everything above it. The basic charge of 23.44 cents per day is excluded here, because it is unaffected by generation. Figures before GST and rider adjustments.
That table is worth reading more carefully than the marketing does. Yes, a kWh you use is worth more than a kWh you sell. But in Tier 1 the gap is 1.87¢ — not nothing, and not the dramatic difference the phrase “self-consumption is far more valuable” implies. In Tier 2 the gap is 4.08¢, more than twice as much. Self-consumption pays properly in a high-consumption household, and only modestly in a frugal one.
Is the 10¢ fixed?
Here is where most coverage gets it wrong. You will read that the rate is “fixed for five years”. That phrase comes from BC Hydro’s application — it is what was asked for. The Commission did not grant a term. Its finding, in full, was this:
“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.”
— and it directed BC Hydro to file that evaluation report by 30 April 2030. So the price is fixed until a review, not for a term, and 30 April 2030 is a filing deadline rather than an expiry date. It is also under four years after the rate began, so “five years” is wrong about the arithmetic as well as the mechanism.
There is no per-customer lock-in either, and this one costs money if you get it wrong. One intervenor proposed fixing each customer’s price at their service start date for the life of their project; the Panel did not adopt it. If somebody models 10¢ per kWh across a 25-year payback and calls it locked in, they are quoting a proposal, not a decision.
What this means for how you design a system
Because exports settle instantly at 10¢ and self-consumption offsets the retail rate, the winning design shifts from “fill the roof and bank the surplus” to “size to your usage and store what you can.” A battery moves midday production into the evening, where it displaces power you would otherwise buy. That is why our proposals are battery‑first.
Related reading: RS 1289 vs RS 2289, compared row by row, whether net metering is gone in BC, what grandfathering means for your account, and the BC rebates and laws guide.
This page describes BC Hydro Rate Schedule 2289 as published on 27 July 2026, sourced from BCUC Order G-64-26 and BC Hydro’s own rate pages, stated before GST and rider adjustments. Rate schedules change; confirm anything you intend to act on with BC Hydro directly. General information, not financial advice.