Glossary
Annual true-up
The annual true-up is the moment, twelve months after interconnection, when your utility settles the net metering credit accumulated over the year. In Florida, FPL, Duke and TECO pay that surplus at the generation rate, which is lower than the full retail rate you pay to consume. It is why heavily oversizing a system does not earn you money.
What the true-up is
Under net metering, months where you produce more than you use leave a credit in kWh that rolls into the next month. That credit offsets the months where you use more. But the rollover is not endless: once a year the utility closes the account. If credit is left in your favor, it converts it to dollars at a specific rate and applies it to the bill. That closing is the true-up.
In the context of a solar subscription, “true-up” also refers to the annual review where the provider verifies the contractually guaranteed savings were delivered and makes up any shortfall.
Why it matters in Florida
The rate paid for surplus is the generation rate: what it costs the utility to produce a kWh, without transmission or distribution. It is considerably lower than what you pay to consume one. In practice, a kWh you consume costs the full rate; a kWh left over at year end is worth much less.
That turns sizing into a precision exercise. Too high an offset gives cheap energy away to the utility; too low leaves you paying full-rate kWh in summer. The roughly 110% we use aims for the middle with a margin.
Common mistake
Reading the negative true-up bill as “the utility pays me every month.” It does not: this is a yearly settlement, and month to month you still pay the minimum charge. It is also a mistake to assume the true-up month matches the calendar year; it counts from the interconnection date. In net metering in Florida we show what it looks like on a real bill.
Updated