If your Massachusetts electric bill shows a solar credit balance that never seems to shrink, that money is stuck. It’s stuck on purpose.
Your utility won’t mail you a check for it. But through December 31, 2026, there’s a one-time window to hand a banked balance to other electric accounts.
The money you can’t touch
Net metering credits are the bill dollars your utility gives you for extra power your panels push onto the grid. In Massachusetts they roll forward from one bill to the next. Sounds generous.
Now read Eversource’s own FAQ. “If I have a large credit balance due to net metering credits, can I receive a check?” The answer is one word: “No.”
Can you close the account and cash out? Also no. If you move out, Eversource says, “the residual net metering credit will be used to offset net metering recovery surcharges for all customers.”
Translation: your credits go into the pot everyone pays into, and you walk away with nothing. Very generous to your neighbors.
The window
The state’s Department of Public Utilities opened a limited-time transfer process in its net crediting case, D.P.U. 25-117. National Grid’s version is the plainest: customers with accumulated solar credit balances “can make a one-time transfer of credits between July 1, 2026, and December 31, 2026.” You can split it across more than one account, but each account gets one request. There’s no minimum balance.
Here’s the catch. The normal sharing rules still apply. At Eversource, most net metering customers can only send credits to other Eversource electric accounts in the same ISO load zone, the regional pricing area the grid operator uses. Gas accounts don’t count.
Who should bother
Say your bill shows $1,800 in banked credit and you pay about $150 in a typical month. That’s a full year of electricity going nowhere. If your panels overproduce every summer, the pile grows faster than you can spend it, while a relative’s account on the same utility pays full price.
If you’re selling the house, this isn’t optional. Eversource lets you file a final Schedule Z, its credit allocation form, before the account closes, sending the balance to other eligible accounts, which Eversource says can include “the new move-in account.” Skip it and the credits are gone.
The move
Pull your latest bill and find the credit balance. If it’s bigger than a few months of your normal bill, and no heat pump or EV is coming to eat it, move some of it.
National Grid customers: download the One-Time Excess Credit Transfer Form and its Excel worksheet from National Grid’s solar incentives page and send them through its Contact Us page.
Eversource customers: update ongoing allocations in its Renewable Credits Portal, as often as you like. For a big existing balance, its FAQ offers a one-time courtesy transfer of 100%, on the condition that you also change your future allocations so it doesn’t pile up again. Unitil customers: call Unitil and ask whether it offers the same window.
Then fix the leak. Set a standing allocation so each month’s surplus goes straight to the other account. If you’re still sizing a system, run it through our solar calculator so you don’t build a credit pile in the first place. More on our solar hub and best solar picks.
The detail
Eversource says home systems of 10 kW or less on a single-phase circuit are exempt from the Market Net Metering Credit, the reduced credit worth 60% of distribution, transmission, transition and Basic Service rates that applies to some systems installed after September 26, 2016. Those small systems earn credit at the full rate, minus a few excluded charges such as energy efficiency and net metering recovery. Separately, the state is covering its SMART solar charge on bills from January to March 2027, which changes what your bill looks like but not your credit balance.
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