Ask An Energy Expert – Your Energy Questions Answered!

With energy costs sky-rocketing and AI’s growing impact on energy demand, energy is top of mind for folks like never before. And that leads to questions:

How is my electric bill calculated? Can I benefit from solar if I don’t have a suitable house for solar panels? What is plug-in solar?

You asked, I answered! Read our Q&A below answering questions sent in from community members to learn more about energy costs and how solar energy bolsters our power grid and benefits our pocket books!

If you’d like an energy question answered, submit your questions here and it might be featured in the next Q&A!

Q: How is my energy bill calculated?

A: Your energy bill isn’t just a meter reading. It’s the result of a series of decisions made throughout the energy system. For most residential customers, your electric bill includes two types of charges: 

• A fixed charge, and 
• Charges based on consumption, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). 

A fixed charge is the fee you pay for being a customer of the electric utility. The fixed charge recovers costs that do not vary based on consumption, such as reading your meter and sending you a bill. Depending on the state you live in and your electric utility, fixed charges can vary substantially from just a few dollars per month to over $50 per month.

For most residential customers, the majority of your electric bill will depend on how much electricity (kWh) you use. There are generally four categories of kWh charges: (1) generation, (2) transmission, (3) distribution, and (4) other charges. Generation charges should reflect the cost to generate the electricity that you use. Transmission charges represent the cost to get the electricity from power plants to a substation and distribution charges should embody the cost to deliver electricity from the substation to your home. Finally, “other charges” can include a litany of other charges, such as over or undercollections or funding for programs available to customers.

Your electric bill also includes the profit for the electric utility. Our friends at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance created a Utility Bill Calculator that can help you understand how much profit you pay to your electric utility.

Q: I don’t have solar. Can I still participate in and benefit from clean energy programs?

Absolutely. You don’t need solar panels on your roof to participate in or benefit from a cleaner, more flexible energy system.

More people can play a role in the energy system than they might realize. Homes with batteries, smart thermostats, EV chargers, heat pumps and other technologies can sometimes be connected through community power networks, coordinated groups of energy resources that can reduce demand when the grid is under strain or provide other services that help keep the system reliable and ultimately bring costs down.

Depending on where you live, you may also be able to participate in community solar, allowing you to benefit from a local solar project without installing panels on your own home. Some programs can provide savings on your electricity bill while helping bring more clean energy onto the grid.

And the benefits aren’t limited to people who participate directly. When clean energy resources help meet electricity demand, reduce strain on the grid, and diversify the energy supply, they provide value across the broader electricity system. That results in savings for ALL customers.

So whether you rent, live in a home that isn’t suitable for rooftop solar, or simply aren’t ready to install solar yourself, there are ways for you to participate and benefit from the clean energy transition.

Q: I live in a trailer. Can I have solar?

A: Maybe. While you likely would not be able to install solar on your roof, you may be able to install ground-mounted solar, canopy solar, or potentially plug-in solar. Ground-mounted solar is pretty much what it sounds like – the solar is attached to a structure close to the ground (and may even track the sun). Canopy solar is also attached to the ground, but is higher in order to enable you to use the area under the canopy- such as a carport or a pergola. 

Plug-in solar is newer to the United States, but has been used for years in Europe. Plug-in solar allows customers to install a small solar system that can be mounted on a porch, side of a house, or ground-mounted. 2026 has been a big year for plug-in solar, with nine states passing plug-in solar legislation (CA, CO, CT, NJ, MD, ME, NH, VA, and VT), and a plug-in solar bill awaiting Governor Hochul’s signature in NY. UT led the groundswell of legislation when it legalized plug-in solar in 2025.

Q: I have had rooftop solar since 2015. In 2026, my utility bill is much higher. What has changed, and why am I still charged when I produce more energy than I consume?

Even if your solar panels produce more electricity than you use over the course of a month, you may still owe your utility money. Here’s why:

1. You may still have to pay certain fees. Some utilities charge a monthly customer fee or require customers to pay a minimum bill, even if their solar panels produce enough electricity to cover their energy use. Those fees could have gone up.
2. Your solar credits may not be worth as much as they used to be. When you generate more electricity than you need, your utility may give you credits for sending that extra power to the grid. In the past, those credits often covered the cost of electricity you used later. But some states have changed their policies, so utilities now pay less for the extra electricity you export to the grid. That means your credits may not cover the full cost of the electricity you need when your panels aren’t generating power, like at night.

The exact reason for your higher bill depends on your state and utility. In some cases, a home battery can help by storing extra solar power for you to use later, instead of buying as much electricity from the grid.