Kentucky Solar Export Credits: Check Your Utility's NMS-2 Terms Before Trusting the Savings Pitch

If a Kentucky solar proposal promises a single statewide buyback rate, ask which utility tariff supports it. Kentucky's net-metering framework relies on commission-set compensation, and the applicable utility rider matters. The name NMS-2 is not a substitute for its current terms.

The distinction becomes especially important when a proposal invokes “25-year protection.” What is protected may be the legacy arrangement or a rate structure, not a particular export price for the life of the financing.

Start with the account's generation history

KRS 278.466 preserves qualifying preexisting net-metering tariff provisions for a 25-year period and separately provides for dollar-denominated credits under the newer framework. It also addresses carryforward and the absence of a cash refund when an eligible customer closes the account. Eligibility and the relevant transition depend on the applicable utility order and documents.

Ask the utility to identify your rider and the date the facility entered service. Keep any later expansion records. A seller's description of the installation as “grandfathered” should be checked against the account, not accepted as a universal label that survives every modification.

This article uses Kentucky Utilities as a specific example. KU, LG&E, Duke Energy Kentucky and other providers should not be assumed to have interchangeable tariffs. Municipal and TVA-related arrangements require their own review.

What KU's current tariff illustrates

KU's NMS-2 sheet, effective February 16, 2026, bills electricity taken from the grid under the customer's standard schedule and credits exported electricity at $0.07534 per kWh. Credits apply to energy charges and per-kWh riders; unused amounts carry forward subject to the account rules. This is KU's dated tariff value, not a Kentucky-wide rate.

The same rider protects access to a two-part rate structure for qualifying customers for 25 years from beginning NMS-2 service. That language should not be represented as a 25-year guarantee of the stated export credit. Ask the seller to identify the exact protected term instead of accepting a broad promise that “your rate is locked.”

KU's NMS-1 sheet covers qualifying facilities in service before September 24, 2021 and states a September 24, 2046 end date. It also distinguishes material capacity increases from ordinary replacements with incidental increases. Those are KU-specific provisions, not statewide installation deadlines.

Do not count a credit bank as sale proceeds

When reviewing a proposal, distinguish electricity used in the home, electricity exported and unused dollar credits. A growing balance does not necessarily become a check when you move. Ask the utility what happens on account closure and keep its response with any home-sale planning documents.

For example, imagine a homeowner whose proposal assumes that unused credits will fund part of a future loan payoff when the house sells. The tariff's treatment of an account balance and the finance company's payoff terms are separate questions. The model should not treat a nonrefundable utility balance as cash available to satisfy a different contract.

Likewise, a retail rate increase does not automatically produce an identical increase in the export credit. Request a forecast that shows those assumptions independently, with the source and date for each.

Check the final tariff, not an old proposal

The KU rate case included a March 2026 correction to the NMS-2 figure and an August reconsideration order. That history is a practical reason to use the current approved tariff rather than an earlier filing, a proposed rate or a screenshot without a date.

Gather your proposal, signed agreement, utility rider, bills and installation history. Mark the specific assumption you cannot reproduce: the credit rate, legacy eligibility, export volume or claimed protection. Ask for a written correction while preserving the original sales materials.

Solar Exit's billing-review path and contract review can help organize those records. A mismatch needs review on its facts; it does not automatically establish a right to cancel.

General consumer information, not legal, tax, mortgage or electrical advice. No contract remedy or financial result is guaranteed.