FPL’s budget billing program is designed to smooth out your electric bill across twelve months by averaging your usage. It’s a comfortable program if you have a predictable consumption pattern. It completely breaks down the moment you install solar and sign up for net metering.
Here’s what happens: budget billing assumes your usage stays relatively consistent month to month. Net metering sends excess solar generation back to FPL for credits. These two systems are fundamentally incompatible. I’ve seen the confusion cost my solar customers hundreds of dollars in lost credits and billing nightmares. If you’re planning to install solar, you need to turn off budget billing before the system goes online.
How Budget Billing Works
Budget billing calculates your average monthly usage based on a 12-month history, then divides that total by 12 to create a fixed monthly payment. FPL settles up once a year: if you’ve paid more than you used, you get a credit. If you’ve used more than you paid for, you owe the difference.
In a house without solar, this works cleanly. You use 900 kWh one month, 1,050 kWh the next, 850 kWh the month after. Your usage bounces around, but over a year it averages to, say, 950 kWh per month. Your budget billing payment reflects that. At year-end reconciliation, the math closes out and everyone moves on.
What Net Metering Actually Is
Net metering is the agreement between you and FPL that allows you to send excess solar generation back to the grid in exchange for kilowatt-hour credits on your account. In June, when your solar system is cranking out 25, 30, or 35 kWh on a sunny day and you’re only using 10 kWh to run your AC, air compressor, and refrigerator, you send 15 to 25 kWh back to FPL. You get credited for that excess generation.
Those credits roll forward month to month. In December or January, when your solar production is lower, and your consumption might be higher (heating pool water, holiday lights, guests), you draw down those banked credits. It’s a seasonal give-and-take.
Why They Cannot Work Together
Budget billing assumes your consumption is predictable and roughly stable. Your 12-month history, averaged out, determines your monthly payment. But the moment solar is installed and net metering is active, your consumption pattern is no longer stable or predictable. In April and May, you’re sending massive amounts of power back to FPL because your solar system is oversizing your actual use. Your net consumption might be 200 kWh one month when you’d normally consume 900 kWh. Budget billing has no mechanism to adjust for that.
FPL’s billing algorithm operates on the assumption that the net consumption on your account follows a curve. Budget billing locks in a fixed payment based on that pre-solar curve. When you flip net metering on, the curve inverts in the high-production months. Instead of consuming 900 kWh in June, you might net only 200 kWh after your solar credits. FPL’s system has to reconcile a fixed payment schedule with an account that’s now generating its own power and sending it back to the grid.
The reconciliation fails. FPL is still expecting you to pay based on your pre-solar average. They’re trying to average a bill that now includes monthly net metering credits and debits that fluctuate wildly. The system can’t reconcile the numbers. You end up in one of two bad situations: either you’re overpaying month to month and building a huge credit that FPL eventually forces you to clear at year-end, or the billing algorithm gets confused and you end up with an unexpected surprise bill.
Real-world example: I had a customer install a 7 kW solar system and keep budget billing active. His account was set to a $180 fixed monthly payment based on his pre-solar usage of about 1,200 kWh per month. In May, June, and July, his solar system generated enough to drop his net consumption to around 150 kWh per month. FPL debited his account for 150 kWh, but still charged him the $180 budget payment. He overpaid for three months straight, building a credit.
That’s not a billing error on FPL’s part. It’s a structural incompatibility. Budget billing and net metering should never coexist on the same account.
The good news it that, if you forget or fail to cancel budget billing, you will likely be owed a credit and FPL will credit your account. But you need to call to cancel the program.
Why FPL doesn’t automatically cancel this billing program when you are approved for netmetering is beyond comprehension, but it is what it is.
The Bottom Line
If you are installing solar or already have solar on your account, budget billing must be turned off. Call FPL’s customer service and explicitly ask them to remove budget billing from your account before your solar system is activated. Do not wait until after the system is turned on. Do not assume FPL’s paperwork will handle it automatically. Call and confirm it’s been removed.
Once budget billing is off, FPL will bill you on actual usage minus net metering credits. Your bill will vary month to month, but it will be accurate. You’ll see exactly what you used, what you generated, what credits you earned, and what you owe. This is the only way net metering works correctly.
If you’ve already installed solar or are working with another contractor, make that call yourself. This single step will save you the frustration and the financial headache that comes from trying to run netmetering under a budget billing plan. It’s one of the clearest, most preventable mistakes I see in solar installations across Lee County, Collier County, and Charlotte County.
