Net metering or zero export: how your solar should meet the grid
A grid-tied home in the Philippines has two ways to run a rooftop system alongside the grid. Net metering sends the surplus out and credits it. Zero export keeps every watt inside the house, and since an August 2026 circular it asks for far less paperwork.
Which one suits you comes down to a single habit of your household: when it uses its electricity. The rules below are read from Department Circular DC2026-08-0017 and the net metering rules, checked on 23 October 2026, and every source is listed at the foot of the page.
The two setups, line by line
Both use the same panels and usually the same inverter. What differs is what happens in the hour when the roof makes more than the house can use.
Net metering
Zero export
A surplus on a sunny afternoon
Net metering: Goes out through the meter to the utility and comes back as a credit on the bill.
Zero export: Is never made. The inverter turns itself down to what the house is drawing.
What the credit is worth
Net metering: The utility’s blended generation cost, which is one line of the bill. Credits roll over to later bills.
Zero export: There is no credit. Anything that does reach the grid is treated as non-compensated export.
The meter
Net metering: A bi-directional meter that records import and export separately, fitted by the utility.
Zero export: The circular sets no meter change for a zero-export system, since nothing is meant to go out. Its one meter rule is for micro-solar, and the ERC’s technical rules are still to come.
Extra hardware
Net metering: None beyond a grid-tied or hybrid inverter.
Zero export: A current sensor or meter at the main, wired to the inverter, so it can see when power is about to leave.
Paperwork for a home
Net metering: An application, a net-metering agreement, a certificate of compliance, an inspection and the meter change.
Zero export: A written notice to the utility on a one-page form, and a building permit unless your local government confirms the existing one covers the work. No certificate of compliance for a household.
Before it can run
Net metering: The utility processes the application: ten working days from complete paperwork since April 2026, under a circular tied to the energy emergency. The inspection and the meter change come on top.
Zero export: The building permit from your local government comes first. Nothing from the utility does: the notice goes in after the system is in, and the utility may not make a clearance, a technical permit or an inspection fee a condition of installing.
In a brownout
Net metering: Off. A grid-tied inverter disconnects when the line is dead.
Zero export: Also off, for the same reason. Only a battery and a backed-up circuit keep anything running.
Where a sunny-hour surplus goes
Three paths for the same spare power. A battery can sit behind either setup, and it is the only one of the three that keeps the surplus as electricity for after dark, or runs anything in a brownout.
The question that decides it: when does the house use power?
Take a 3 kW array in San Fernando. The Global Solar Atlas expects a kilowatt of panels there to make 4.26 kWh on an average day, so the array makes about 12.8 kWh. Now picture a house that uses 5 kWh while the sun is up and the rest of its electricity at night. The 5 kWh is an example for the arithmetic. To find yours, read your own meter at sunrise and again at sunset for a week.
On zero export, that house uses at most 5 kWh of its own solar a day, and at least 7.8 kWh the roof could have made is never generated. It is at most 5 because early and late in the day the house can draw more than the panels make. On net metering that surplus goes out and comes back as a credit at the generation line of the bill, which then helps pay for the night. Change the house and the answer changes with it. A family running a sari-sari store and an aircon all afternoon may use nearly everything the roof makes, and then zero export costs it almost nothing.
So the test is the gap between what the array would make and what the house draws in daylight. A small gap points to zero export. A large one points to net metering, a battery, or a smaller array. The solar panel calculator sizes an array from your own monthly kilowatt-hours and shows the daylight share it assumed.
Zero export tends to fit when
- Most of the house’s electricity is used while the sun is up: a home business, a store, daytime aircon, a water pump.
- You want the system running without waiting on a utility application, an agreement and a new meter. The building permit still comes first.
- The array is sized to what the house uses in daylight, so there is little surplus to lose.
Net metering tends to fit when
- The house is empty all day and busy at night, so on zero export most of what the roof could make would never be generated.
- The roof can take more panels than the house uses in daylight, and you want the surplus counted.
- You can wait for the application, the agreement and the new meter.
Three ways people get caught
Each one is written into the circular or into the utility’s own FAQ.
- Exporting without an agreement earns nothing
- The circular says electricity a zero-export system sends to the grid is non-compensated export: no credit, no offset, no payment. For a micro-solar system it adds that this holds whatever the meter, unless the house is on net metering with a signed agreement. Meralco’s own FAQ goes further. If you are not on net metering and your meter only counts one way, it warns that the surplus may be recorded as electricity you imported, which puts it on your bill.
- The limiter is your obligation
- For a connected zero-export system the circular puts the control on you: it has to be fitted, working and maintained, and letting it fail is a breach. The utility may then require corrective measures and extra protection on your side, and the circular leaves the risk of a system that fails with the owner. One way to do it is a sensor at the main telling the inverter how much power is flowing in or out. One inverter maker’s declaration describes exactly that, and recommends setting its zero-export power to 20 to 100 watts to make sure the inverter does not feed the grid. If the sensor fails, the same document says the inverter falls back to the export limit it was set to.
- Micro-solar on an old meter
- A micro-solar system, the plug-in kind with up to 1 kW of panels and a micro-inverter of up to 800 W, needs the notice and an installation that meets the Philippine Electrical Code, and no building permit or certificate of compliance under this circular. On an analog meter the circular gives a twelve-month reprieve from the date you notify the utility, bills on the net consumption that meter records in the meantime, and tells the utility to replace it with a suitable meter inside those twelve months. Who pays for the new meter follows the ERC’s rules. We read the reprieve as being about the meter: section 4.4 of the same circular says export from a micro-solar system earns no credit or offset whatever the meter, so size a kit to what the house uses while it runs.
Starting on one and moving to the other
The circular directs utilities to give technical guidance to anyone moving from zero export to net metering, under the ERC’s rules. Moving means meeting the net metering requirements: the application, the agreement, a certificate of compliance for a system that exports, and the meter change. Running a year on zero export while you watch your own daytime use is one way to find out which side of the gap you are on before you take that on.
Two pieces are still being written. The circular gave the Energy Regulatory Commission ninety days from its effectivity to issue the technical, commercial and interconnection rules for these systems, including how they sit beside net metering, and gave the Department of Energy sixty days to agree uniform guidelines for local governments with the Department of the Interior and Local Government. We had not found either published when this page was written on 23 October 2026, and the page will say so when we do.
What people ask about net metering and zero export
Is net metering worth it in the Philippines?
It depends on when your house uses its electricity. An exported kilowatt-hour is credited at the utility’s blended generation cost, which is one line of the bill, while a kilowatt-hour you use yourself in daylight saves you the whole rate. So net metering does the most for a house whose array makes much more than it uses while the sun is up, and the least for a house that uses most of its electricity in daylight anyway.
What is zero export solar?
A grid-connected system fitted with a control that stops any electricity leaving the house. The Department of Energy’s name for it is a Connected Self-Generating Facility Zero-Export Solar System: connected to the grid, with a control or isolation mechanism that prevents export. Meralco calls the arrangement Zero Export. The house uses the solar first and buys the rest from the grid as before, and the inverter holds its output down so nothing is exported.
Can I start with zero export and switch to net metering later?
Yes. The circular tells distribution utilities to give technical guidance to anyone moving from a zero-export setup to net metering, subject to the ERC’s rules. Being on net metering then means meeting its requirements: the application, the agreement, a certificate of compliance for a system that exports, and the meter change.
Do I need a new meter for zero export?
The circular does not ask for one for a zero-export system, since the house is not meant to send anything out. Net metering is the setup that needs a bi-directional meter. The one meter rule the circular does set is for micro-solar on an analog meter: the utility has twelve months from your notice to replace it. The ERC’s technical rules, still to come, may add to this.
Does zero export need a battery?
No. The inverter simply makes less when the house needs less. A battery is a separate choice, and it is the only way to keep the surplus for the evening when there is no net metering to credit it, or to keep lights on in a brownout.
Which is better, net metering or a hybrid solar system?
They decide different things, and one house can have both. A hybrid system adds a battery and a backed-up output to a grid-tied setup, so it keeps the daytime surplus for the evening and runs the backed-up circuits in a brownout. Net metering decides what happens to the surplus the battery cannot take: it goes out and is credited at the generation line of the bill. On zero export the inverter holds back instead, once the house and the battery are supplied, which is how the inverter maker’s declaration cited below describes it.
Can the utility refuse or delay a zero-export system?
The circular directs utilities not to impose pre-installation clearances, technical permits or inspection fees as conditions, and not to cut your transformer or service drop capacity because you installed solar. A utility may still run a distribution impact study for its own planning, at its own cost, but it may not hold up your installation while it does. It keeps the power to act on irregularities or unsafe conditions it finds, and to require corrective measures if the export control fails.
Where to read next
The paperwork for each route is set out on the permits page, and the net metering application has two pages of its own.
Send us your bill and we will tell you which side of the gap you are on
The name at the top of the bill, your monthly kilowatt-hours and roughly when the house uses them is enough for a written answer on zero export or net metering, and the array that fits either.
Tell us the property and what you are trying to cut, and you will get a written answer with a size and a next step. No visit is booked and nothing is charged for asking.
Sources, read 23 October 2026: Department of Energy, Department Circular No. DC2026-08-0017, “Policy Guidelines for Self-Generating Facility Zero-Export Solar Systems and Micro-Solar Systems for Own-Use”, read in full from the DOE’s copy; SunSynk Ltd, G100 product declaration for its SG04LP1 hybrid inverters, for how an export limiter works; Meralco, net metering FAQ, read 1 October 2026; the net metering rules as dated on our net metering page; Global Solar Atlas, the World Bank Group and ESMAP, on Solargis data, read 23 September 2026, for the San Fernando output. This is a plain reading of public documents and it is not legal advice. Check the current position with your own distribution utility, or send us the details and ask us.