What the Solar Energy Adjustment is
Connecticut law required PURA to establish a non-bypassable charge of at least 3.25 cents per kWh as part of the RRES Netting tariff, for rates offered on and after January 1, 2026. PURA set the 2026 figure at $0.0402 per kWh.
Non-bypassable means what it sounds like. It is not avoided by consuming your own generation, by adding a battery, or by exporting less, because the charge attaches to generation rather than to the flow of electricity across your meter.
That is the detail that makes it different from an ordinary rate change. A charge on exports would push you toward self-consumption and storage. A charge on total generation does not, because it applies either way.
Earlier enrollees are reported to keep the $0.005 rate rather than being moved onto the new one. Confirm your own position with your utility rather than relying on a general statement, and confirm the current year figure too, because it is reset annually.
What it does to a savings projection
Take a system generating 8,000 kWh a year. At $0.0402 per kWh the adjustment is roughly $320 a year, every year, against roughly $40 under the old rate. Over a 20-year tariff term that difference is substantial and it is entirely predictable.
The reason it is easy to miss is that it is a charge rather than a reduced credit, so it appears on the bill rather than in the compensation rate. A model that reports only net savings can absorb it without ever naming it.
Ask for the projection with the Solar Energy Adjustment shown as its own line, in dollars per year, alongside the generation figure it was calculated from. Those two numbers let you check the arithmetic yourself.
Ask also what the model assumes about the charge in future years. It is reset annually, so a projection holding it at the 2026 figure for two decades is making an assumption that should at least be stated.
Why solar still works in Bridgeport anyway
None of the above makes Connecticut solar a bad idea, and it is worth being clear about that rather than leaving an impression. The state average residential electricity price was around 27.4 cents per kWh in mid-2026, roughly fourth highest in the nation.
Against a retail price at that level, a charge of about four cents on generation is a meaningful reduction in the benefit rather than an elimination of it. The arithmetic still works for most homes with a usable roof.
What changes is the margin for error. When the gap between what a kilowatt hour costs and what your solar effectively delivers narrows, an optimistic production estimate or an oversized design does more damage than it used to.
So the response is not to abandon the idea, it is to insist on a model built from real numbers: your actual consumption, a production estimate for your address, the correct tariff, and the adjustment shown explicitly.
Costing it out with the adjustment applied
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase in Bridgeport receives no federal tax credit. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements.
Retail net metering closed to new residential customers at the end of 2021. What exists instead is a 20-year RRES contract on the Netting or Buy-All tariff, with the Solar Energy Adjustment applying to Netting enrollees from January 1, 2026.
The sales and use tax exemption under CGS Section 12-412 removes the 6.35 percent tax from the system, and the property tax exemption under CGS Section 12-81 covers the value the system adds, though some municipalities require a filing with the local assessor.
Ask any installer to rebuild the projection from those, with the adjustment as its own line and with the electricity you stop buying priced at the current retail rate rather than an escalated one.