Why is my National Grid bill higher than the electricity I used?

Part of the bill is not charged per kilowatt hour. There is a fixed monthly charge for the connection itself, plus state-ordered program charges collected through the bill. Those are there in a month you barely used anything.

What is the delivery charge on a National Grid bill?

Delivery is what the utility charges to carry electricity to the house, and a regulator sets it rather than the market. It is usually more than half a residential bill, and it is separate from the supply charge, which is the cost of the power itself.

Will solar zero out my National Grid bill?

No, and you should be careful with anyone who says it will. Solar offsets the charges billed per kilowatt hour. The fixed monthly connection charge stays as long as the house is connected to the grid. The breakdown above marks which lines move and which do not.

Where do I find National Grid's own explanation of my bill?

National Grid publishes it themselves, and that is the version to trust because it comes from whoever prints your statement. The link is on this page. If you want a person to read yours line by line instead, send it over, with no obligation attached.

UTILITY BILLS · NATIONAL GRID

Your National Grid bill,line by line.

National Grid is the utility for Watertown, Brownville and most of the North Country, and it is the bill we run every solar number from. Upstate residential service is rate SC-1.

Read the charges National Grid's own sample bill

Upstate New York. Nothing on this page is a WC mockup of your bill.

01 //STRAIGHT FROM NATIONAL GRID

Read their version first.

National Grid publishes its own explanation of the bill. That is the most reliable version there is, because it comes from whoever prints your statement. Everything further down is the part they do not cover: what solar does to each line.

Their bill walkthrough Annotated sample bill, page by page
Their live rates Service rates
Other bill types Budget plan bill · Payment agreement bill · Bill with an energy supplier (ESCO) · Billing FAQs
Where the surcharge values live Electric rate statements. National Grid posts the surcharge values here and updates them through the year. This is where the numbers actually live.

Basic service charge: $19.00 per month
Delivery: 10.013 cents per kWh

Read from National Grid's own rate page on 2026-09-17. Read off National Grid’s own service rates page. That page does not print an effective date, so treat these as current-as-posted and check the rate statements for the surcharges, which National Grid itself marks as varying monthly or annually.

National Grid lists fourteen separate surcharge and adjustment lines for upstate residential service, and marks nearly all of them as varying monthly or annually. Any page that prints all fourteen as fixed numbers is a snapshot, not a reference.

The current upstate rate plan was approved by the Public Service Commission in August 2025 and runs three years. The Commission cut the request by more than $340 million on electric and nearly $100 million on gas, and set electric delivery revenue increases of 3.4 percent, 5.6 percent and 4.6 percent across the three rate years, which begin September 1.

How much of your bill can solar actually touch?

Solar offsets the part of the bill charged per kilowatt hour. It does not remove the fixed monthly charge for being connected to the grid. Put your average bill in and see the split.

Your average monthly National Grid bill

Solar does not touch this: $0
Solar works on this: $0

Arithmetic, not a quote. It uses National Grid's own published fixed charge and assumes the rest of your bill scales with usage. Your statement may carry other fixed lines on top of it. Send the bill and we will read yours line by line, with nothing attached to it.

02 //WHAT EACH CHARGE IS

And which ones solar cannot touch.

The names on your statement may differ slightly. The categories are the same across every utility, and so is the part that matters before you sign anything.

Delivery

The wires side. Your utility is paid to carry electricity to the house, and the state regulator, not the market, sets what it may charge. On most residential bills this is more than half the total.

Basic service charge

Also called: Customer charge, service charge

A flat monthly amount for being connected at all. It pays for the meter, the billing and the line to the house, and it is the same whether you use 2,000 kilowatt hours or none.
Solar does not touch it
This is the single biggest reason a bill does not reach zero after solar. You are still connected, so you still pay it.
Delivery or distribution charge

Also called: Delivery charge, distribution charge

A per kilowatt hour amount for every unit the house pulls off the grid.
Shrinks with solar
Falls with the kilowatt hours you stop importing. It does not disappear, because most homes still pull from the grid at night.
Bill issuance charge

Also called: Bill delivery charge

A small fixed amount some utilities charge for producing the statement itself.
Solar does not touch it
Fixed per bill. Production does not touch it. Not every utility has one.
Public policy surcharges

Also called: System benefits charge, clean energy standard, EV make-ready, energy storage surcharge, arrears management program

State-ordered programs collected through the bill: efficiency programs, low income assistance, renewable procurement, EV and storage buildout.
Shrinks with solar
Mostly billed per kilowatt hour, so they shrink with usage. They are not solar penalties and they do not go away.
Reconciliation and adjustment mechanisms

Also called: Revenue decoupling, rate adjustment mechanism, earnings adjustment, transmission revenue adjustment, deferral surcharges

True-ups between what the regulator let the utility forecast and what actually happened. They can be a charge one period and a credit the next.
Solar does not touch it
These follow the utility, not your roof. Worth knowing because they are the lines that move on a bill you did not change.

Supply

The electricity itself. This is the part that tracks the market, and in New York you may buy it from the utility or from an ESCO you chose. It is also the part solar actually displaces.

Electric supply charge

Also called: Energy charge, generation charge, market supply charge

The commodity cost of the power, per kilowatt hour. It moves with the market and, in some territories, with your load zone.
Shrinks with solar
The main line solar offsets. Every kilowatt hour the roof makes is one you are not buying here.
Merchant function charge

Also called: Procurement charge

What the utility charges for buying the power on your behalf.
Shrinks with solar
Tied to supply volume, so it falls with it. Customers on an ESCO are generally billed differently here.
Supply reconciliation

Also called: Electricity supply reconciliation mechanism

The true-up between forecast supply cost and actual supply cost.
Shrinks with solar
Moves with supply, so it follows the same direction as the charge above.

Taxes and assessments

Set by your county, your municipality and the state, and calculated off the rest of the bill.

Sales tax

Your local rate applied to the taxable portion of the bill.
Shrinks with solar
Calculated off a smaller bill, so it falls on its own. Nothing about solar changes the rate itself.
State assessment surcharge

Also called: Incremental state assessment

A state charge on utility revenue, passed through to customers.
Shrinks with solar
Falls with the bill it is calculated from.

After solar, one new line

Once the system is on and the meter is changed, your statement starts carrying the other direction too. This is the line people are never shown before they sign.

Net metering or export credit

Also called: VDER, value stack, net metering credit, banked kilowatt hours

What the utility records when the system sends power back. Depending on the state and your rate, it is banked as kilowatt hours or as a dollar credit, and it usually rolls forward.
New after solar
The rate you are credited at is often lower than the rate you are charged at. Ask which one applies to you before you sign anything.

03 //QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

Why is my National Grid bill higher than the electricity I used?: Part of the bill is not charged per kilowatt hour. There is a fixed monthly charge for the connection itself, plus state-ordered program charges collected through the bill. Those are there in a month you barely used anything.
What is the delivery charge on a National Grid bill?: Delivery is what the utility charges to carry electricity to the house, and a regulator sets it rather than the market. It is usually more than half a residential bill, and it is separate from the supply charge, which is the cost of the power itself.
Will solar zero out my National Grid bill?: No, and you should be careful with anyone who says it will. Solar offsets the charges billed per kilowatt hour. The fixed monthly connection charge stays as long as the house is connected to the grid. The breakdown above marks which lines move and which do not.
Where do I find National Grid's own explanation of my bill?: National Grid publishes it themselves, and that is the version to trust because it comes from whoever prints your statement. The link is on this page. If you want a person to read yours line by line instead, send it over, with no obligation attached.

Send the bill. Get the real numbers.

A photo of the statement is enough. You get production for your roof and every payment path your state allows, side by side. If solar does not beat what you are paying National Grid now, that is what we tell you.

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