Tampa Electric solar: rates, net metering and free quotes

Tampa Electric serves about 870,000 customers in Hillsborough County and parts of Polk, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Your installer applies to TECO to connect the system, and TECO swaps in a meter that tracks the power you send back as well as the power you use.

Tampa Electric net meters under the Florida Public Service Commission's rule (25-6.065). When your panels make more than your home is using, the extra goes to the grid and comes back as a kWh credit at the full retail rate. Credits you don't use in a month roll forward for up to 12 months; whatever is left at the end of the year is paid out at the utility's avoided cost, only a few cents per kWh. That's why installers size Florida systems to cover your yearly use, not more. See how Florida net metering works.

TECO's typical 1,000 kWh bill rose $8.88 to $176.89 in January 2026. The storm surcharge for Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, which had added $19.95 per 1,000 kWh, ended with August 2026 bills, bringing the typical bill to $156.43, or about 15.6¢ per kWh. Regulators approved a further cut to $154.18 (down 1.4%) from January 2027. See why TECO bills are so high.

Use above 1,000 kWh costs about 2¢ more per kWh, so homes that run the AC hard all summer get the most from each kWh their panels make. TECO also charges a basic service charge of about $0.45 a day, a storm protection charge of 0.717¢ per kWh and a clean energy transition charge of 0.406¢ per kWh.

The estimate uses TECO's typical rate of about 15.6¢ per kWh and $2.70 per watt with no rebate. Run your own numbers in the savings calculator.

TECO sorts systems into the state's size tiers:

• Tier 1, up to 10 kW (most homes): no application fee and no extra insurance required.
• Tier 2, over 10 kW up to 100 kW (large homes): up to $1 million of liability insurance, and a $250 application fee.

Systems over 100 kW pay a $500 fee. TECO says approval can take up to 30 calendar days from a complete application.

Tampa Electric reported 32,516 customer-owned systems at the end of 2025, up from 29,026 a year earlier, with about 355 MW of solar capacity, in its reports to the Public Service Commission. See Florida solar statistics.

Not all of them. Tampa Electric says its Energy Planner time-of-day rate doesn't work with net metering, and it doesn't offer Sun Select to customers with their own rooftop panels. Prime Time Plus, which pays bill credits for letting TECO pause your AC, water heater or pool pump, requires at least 400 kWh a month of delivered power to earn a credit, so a solar home may miss credits in sunny months. See FPL, Duke and TECO programs that pay you.

During Hurricane Milton in October 2024, nearly 600,000 Tampa Electric customers, about 70% of its total, lost power, and essentially all were restored by the morning of October 16, about a week after landfall. See why solar shuts off in a power outage.

Because Tampa Electric credits exports at the full retail rate, a battery adds little to your bill savings. Its job in Florida is backup power: grid-tied panels shut off in an outage, but a battery keeps essentials running and solar recharges it each sunny day until the grid comes back. One 13.5 kWh battery runs about $13,000 installed at recent South Florida prices, and we found no utility or state rebate for it. See solar battery backup for hurricanes.