The Con Edison CBC Charge on Solar, With the Arithmetic

Con Edison’s 2026 residential Customer Benefit Contribution is $1.29 per kW-month, calculated on the DC size of a net metered solar array. Small commercial customers pay $1.47 per kW-month. Both figures come from NYSERDA’s published 2026 rate sheet, and both are capacity charges — they apply whether the panels are producing at noon in July or sitting idle under snow, because the charge has nothing to do with output.

If you interconnected solar with Con Edison on or after 1 January 2022, this line is already on your bill or is coming. It will not go away, and it changes every year.

The arithmetic on sizes people actually install in Con Edison territory

City and inner-suburb roofs run smaller than upstate farmhouses, so the arrays quoted in Con Edison territory tend to sit lower than the sizes seen elsewhere on this site.

None of that is large next to a typical electric bill, but it is permanent for as long as the array exists, and it never drops even in a month the system barely produces. City and inner-suburb systems tend to land in this range in the first place because roof geometry, not appetite, sets the ceiling: a Brooklyn rowhouse or a Westchester colonial with dormers and chimneys rarely has room for the double-digit kilowatt arrays that are routine on an open upstate roof, and a landmark-district review can shrink the usable roof area further before the CBC arithmetic ever enters the conversation.

The three exclusions that matter more than the rate itself

Interconnection date. The charge applies only to systems interconnected on or after 1 January 2022. A system connected before that date does not owe it, and NYSERDA’s current fact sheet keeps later expansions of a pre-2022 system outside the charge as well — confirm against the current document rather than an older summary, since an earlier version of the same fact sheet said something different.

Community solar. Subscribers pay none of it. Community solar is a front-of-the-meter project, so the capacity charge does not arise at all — it is billed to the project, not to the subscriber’s home.

Commercial accounts with a demand charge. These are billed on an entirely different structure and fall outside the residential and small-commercial CBC tables.

How Con Edison compares to every other New York utility

Con Edison’s residential rate sits second-highest of the state’s seven utilities for 2026, behind only RG&E.

Central Hudson actually charges more for residential than Con Edison, at $1.67 against $1.29 — worth knowing if you are comparing a Hudson Valley property to a city one.

The direction that catches people out

At exactly three New York utilities — NYSEG, RG&E and Orange & Rockland — the small commercial rate is actually lower than the residential one. Con Edison is not one of them: its small commercial figure, $1.47, is higher than its residential $1.29, which is the direction most people assume holds everywhere. It does not. A side business or a mixed-use building account should check its own utility’s table rather than assume the residential number applies, or that the commercial number is always higher.

NYSERDA also publishes a separate Value Stack (VDER) column, where Con Edison’s residential figure is $0.65 per kW-month — roughly half the net metered rate — and its small commercial figure is $1.03. Do not read that lower number as something you can opt into. Value Stack is the compensation framework for community distributed generation and larger commercial projects; mass-market residential rooftop solar sits on Phase One net metering, which locks a system interconnected in 2026 into a 1-to-1 retail credit rate for a full 20 years. A quote citing the $0.65 figure for a residential rooftop system is describing a program that residential customers are not actually in.

Why this is an argument against building bigger than you need

Every additional DC kilowatt adds $1.29 a month here, for as long as the array exists, whether or not the household ever uses what it makes. A system sized past your real consumption generates export credit at the full retail rate that then goes unused, and the CBC is charged on that surplus capacity every single month regardless. Size to the load you actually have — including a heat pump or an EV charger if either is genuinely planned within the next year or two — and stop there. Ask your installer what DC number is going on the interconnection application, and check it against the module count and wattage in the contract before signing.

Where the line actually sits on your bill

The Customer Benefit Contribution shows up as its own line item, separate from delivery charges and separate from the net metering credit for exported generation. It is not netted against your solar credits the way volumetric charges are — a month where your array fully offsets your usage still carries the full CBC line, because the charge is set by nameplate capacity, not by the net kilowatt-hours on the meter that month. Homeowners who read only the bottom-line total sometimes miss it entirely for the first year, then notice it once they start reconciling the bill against what their installer’s production estimate promised. It is worth asking your installer, before signing, to show you a full year of projected bills with the CBC included as its own line rather than folded into a single “estimated savings” number.

The Rockaway exception — read the name on your own bill

Con Edison serves all five New York City boroughs and part of Westchester County, but not every address inside that footprint is actually a Con Edison customer. The Rockaway Peninsula in Queens is served by PSEG Long Island, operating the Long Island Power Authority’s grid, not by Con Edison — a legacy of the old Long Island Lighting Company boundary that never moved when the rest of Queens became Con Edison territory. A homeowner in Arverne or Far Rockaway is on PSEG Long Island’s interconnection process and PSEG Long Island’s 2026 CBC rate — $1.13 per kW-month residential, not Con Edison’s $1.29 — even though the address is unambiguously part of New York City. Check the utility name printed on your own electric bill before assuming the numbers on this page apply; the borough is not a reliable guide on this one stretch of the city.

What offsets the charge in 2026

Weighed against the cost of a system, the CBC is small but permanent, and nothing here comes from the federal side any longer — the 30% residential credit ended for expenditures made after 31 December 2025. What remains at the state level is the 25% state credit, capped at $5,000, claimed on Form IT-255 for a principal residence; the state sales tax exemption on residential solar equipment, with localities free to elect their own share separately; and RPTL 487, a 15-year exemption on the added property value where the municipality, the county and the school district have each not opted out, for systems constructed before 1 January 2030. CBC rates are recalculated every year and are not locked in at interconnection, so treat the figures on this page as the 2026 position and check NYSERDA’s current published rate sheet before budgeting a specific number for next year.

Battery storage does not change any of this

Adding a battery to a Con Edison solar system does not add a second CBC or change the rate on the solar array itself — the charge is calculated on the PV system’s DC capacity, not on paired storage. A battery can, however, change the economics around the CBC indirectly: a household that uses storage to consume more of its own generation, rather than exporting it for net metering credit, is drawing down less of the surplus that made an oversized array a poor decision in the first place. That does not make the CBC line disappear, but it is one more reason the sizing conversation in the section above is worth having with whoever designs the system, battery included.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Con Edison CBC rate for 2026?

$1.29 per kW-month for residential net metered solar, billed on the array's DC system size. A 7.5 kW system pays about $9.68 a month, roughly $116.10 a year, regardless of how much electricity it actually produces.

Is the CBC based on how much electricity my panels generate?

No. It is a capacity charge on the DC size of the array, so it is identical whether the system is producing heavily or sitting idle. That is why an oversized system keeps costing you every month even after you stop needing the extra capacity.

Who is exempt from Con Edison's CBC?

Systems interconnected before 1 January 2022, community solar subscribers (a front-of-the-meter arrangement), and commercial accounts billed with a demand charge. NYSERDA's current fact sheet also keeps later expansions of a pre-2022 system outside the charge.

Does the Rockaway Peninsula pay Con Edison's CBC rate?

No. The Rockaway Peninsula in Queens is served by PSEG Long Island, not Con Edison, so residents there are billed PSEG Long Island's 2026 rate of $1.13 per kW-month rather than Con Edison's $1.29 — even though the address is part of New York City.