Rules by state

Solar and battery interconnection rules in Texas

Texas interconnection of on-site distributed generation. Every threshold below was read out of the document linked at the bottom of this page, and the same rules answer the free screening check.

Who this binds: investor owned utilities. A utility outside that list sets its own terms, so confirm who serves the address first.

Check a Texas address free
How the size is measured: not published

The published limits here are stated in kilowatts without saying whether that is the inverter rating in alternating current or the array rating in direct current. On a system near a threshold that decides which band it lands in, so the checker asks the question rather than choosing an answer.

Size bands and what each one obliges

Pre-certified, up to 500 kW on a radial feeder Size 0 to 500 kW

A utility may not charge a study fee for pre-certified units up to 500 kW that export not more than 15 percent of total load on a single radial feeder and contribute not more than 25 percent of maximum potential short circuit current. Pre-certified equipment is installed without further design review by the utility, and interconnection must take place within four weeks of a completed application.

  • Pre-certified equipment
  • No study fee where the export and short circuit tests are met
  • Interconnection within four weeks
Other facilities, up to 10 MW at the point of common coupling Size 500.001 to 10000 kW

Interconnection must take place within six weeks of a completed application. Where substantial capital upgrades are required, interconnection follows no later than two weeks after the upgrades are complete. Study fees are set in each utility tariff.

  • Study fee per the utility tariff
  • Interconnection within six weeks

The screens that decide it

Ask the utility this, before you sell it

  1. Is this address served by an investor owned transmission and distribution utility, a cooperative, or a municipal utility? For Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and Texas-New Mexico Power this rule applies; for Pedernales, Bluebonnet, Austin Energy, CPS Energy, Denton or Garland it does not, and none of the fees, timelines or screens here reach them.
  2. What does the retail electric provider pay for exported energy? Texas has no statewide net metering, so buyback is a voluntary product term rather than a tariff obligation.
  3. What are the interconnection study fees in your tariff? The rule requires them to be in the tariff but publishes no amounts.

Worth knowing before you quote

Texas publishes the only outcome based interconnection deadline of the states read: four weeks to interconnection for pre-certified equipment and six weeks otherwise, in calendar weeks rather than business days, and it is a deadline to interconnect rather than merely to review. There is no aggregate cap, no first come first served queue and no closure mechanism; annual public reporting is the transparency instrument instead. The rule contains no storage provision, no export limit provision and no non export operating mode. The standard agreement and tariff are incorporated by reference as figures that are not reproduced in the rule, so insurance terms could not be read.

Utility programs we have read in Texas

Source

Texas Administrative Code Title 16 Section 25.211, interconnection of on-site distributed generation, and Section 25.212 technical requirements

Read and recorded 2026-09-12. Texas has a statewide interconnection standard and no statewide net metering. The rule guarantees a right to interconnect and export without distribution, operation and maintenance or transmission charges for the export, and guarantees nothing about being paid for it; buyback is a voluntary retail product. Electric cooperatives are bound by one subsection only, which covers distributed natural gas facilities rather than solar, so for a residential solar job Texas cooperatives are entirely outside this rule. Municipally owned utilities are likewise outside it.

What to do with this

Check a real address

The rules below are the general case. Run the free check to see which utility serves a specific address, which tier the system lands in, and what to ask.

Run the free check
Installers: keep the answer with the job

GridProjeX holds the project from here, with every value tied to the document it came from and the utility and permit tracks run to permission to operate.

How it works for installers
Utilities: see what applicants are told

The same published rules your applicants read here are the ones your queue sees. GridProjeX is the record both sides work from.

How it works for utilities

Also from CivyxIQ, if they fit what you already do: SolarProjeX for running the crews and the jobs, and Solar Home so the homeowner can follow their own project. Neither is needed to use the checker.