More people are embracing solar, battery storage, and other onsite sources of energy for Distributed Generation (DG). By doing so, they can reduce their energy usage from the grid and save money on their electric bill. With DG, electricity comes from many small sources at an individual’s home or business. Along with solar and wind, natural gas-fueled micro-turbines, diesel-fueled engines, batteries, and landfill gas are common components of DG.

Unlike emergency generators or other off-grid systems that serve an isolated load and are not connected to the power grid, DG sites are interconnected so they can function in parallel with the power grid or separately. 

Common Myths When Installing & Exploring Rooftop Solar

Rooftop solar panels are a popular DG technology. Oncor is committed to providing resources and information to customers during their process of interconnecting  solar systems at their home or business to the power grid. Our top priority is safety, and that includes working cooperatively with customers—or customers' designated representatives—to ensure a safe and reliable interconnection of DG sites to the grid. Here are the top five myths about rooftop solar that interested customers may encounter:

Myth  No. 1: You will not receive an electric bill once you have solar installed on your home or business. 

TRUTH: You will still receive an electric bill. All line items included on customer’s monthly bills, such as electric delivery charges, are not covered by the solar generation. In addition, the total amount of solar generation produced by your installed system may not cover the entire amount needed to power the devices your home or business requires. Your bill, however, may decrease during the summer when there is more sunlight to produce solar generation.  

Please note, your solar panels depend on sunlight to produce energy. Therefore, you will still use electricity from the power grid during cloudy days and at night.

Myth No. 2: My solar panels are on, so my electric usage from the grid should be zero. 

TRUTH: It’s important to remember that solar panels will only generate energy during the day. Unless you also have solar battery storage, your home or business will use energy from the power grid during times that it is cloudy or at night.

Myth No. 3: My electric bill should decrease immediately after solar panels are installed and turned on. 

TRUTH: Your total electric usage (the amount of energy your home or business uses from the grid) during the month may decrease, but unless you separately measure the total amount of generation your panels produces and track how your total electric usage from the grid changes, you won’t be able to know for sure. We recommend you contact your solar provider to see what options are available to measure the total amount of solar generation that is produced by your solar panels and how much generation was used by your home or business.

Also keep in mind, there are several factors that must be completed after your solar rooftop system is installed and turned on in order to see a decrease in your energy bill.  All of these factors can take 30 – 60 days and can include:

• Permission To Operate (PTO) agreement (signed and/or approved)
• Meter re-programmed to measure surplus generation (any generated electricity not used by the home or business, which will flow back onto the power grid).
• Load profile updated to report measured energy usage from the grid and surplus generation to the Retail Electric Provider

More information about these factors is available on our website at www.oncor.com/solar.

Myth No. 4: My energy bill should include how much solar energy my panels generated.

TRUTH: The Oncor meter will not measure the total amount of solar generation that your panels produce or the amount of generation that your home or business uses. Oncor meters only measure how much electricity your home or business uses from the power grid and the amount of surplus generation that flows onto the power grid. We recommend that you contact your solar provider to see what options are available to you, such as software applications, to measure total solar generation produced by your solar panels.  

Myth No. 5: My energy bill didn’t decrease after the panels were installed, so my meter is broken.

TRUTH: It’s important to remember that solar panels are owned by the customer and it is unlikely that solar panel installation would break or interfere with Oncor’s meter. If your electric bill has a drastic increase after the solar panels are installed, we recommend that you contact your solar provider or a qualified licensed electrician to see if your solar system was installed correctly and has been turned on.