Solar Billing
Solar Billing Software for Multi-Tenant Properties
Sell the power your array produces directly to your tenants at local utility rates. Energy311 handles the metering, allocation, invoicing, and collections.
Best fit for commercial, industrial, and multifamily property owners with solar already installed — or under consideration — who want to bill tenants at real utility rates instead of a fixed-rate PPA.
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Can I charge tenants for solar power?
Yes. Story v. Richardson, a 1921 decision of the California Supreme Court, held that a landlord’s provision of utility service to a tenant is not public utility service subject to regulation by the California Public Utilities Commission. In summary, you can charge tenants for electricity — including solar power — at market rate, without being subject to CPUC rules and regulations.
Is it legal to charge tenants for solar power in California?See rules for other states
How tenant solar billing works
Meter
Energy311 measures solar production and grid usage directly from your existing meters — smart meters, AMI systems, or third-party hardware from EKM, SolarEdge, Enphase, AlsoEnergy, and others — with no new equipment required.
Allocate
Depending on how your property is metered, solar production is allocated to each tenant using Net Energy Metering Aggregation, Virtual Net Energy Metering, RUBS, or a dedicated system per meter. We help you choose the right approach for your building.
Bill and collect
Each tenant gets a bill formatted like their utility bill, calculated to the penny at current utility rates, with online payments and collections handled for you.
Submetering and energy cost allocation
Once solar is installed, production still has to be split across tenants. With NEM Aggregation, one utility account absorbs solar production across all of a property’s meters, which works well when the customer of record is the same across accounts. With Virtual Net Energy Metering (VNEM), a percentage of solar production is allocated to each tenant meter individually, so the meter can stay in the tenant’s name and allocations can be adjusted as tenants turn over. Where a lease already gives the owner the right to bill for electricity, a Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) can allocate cost by square footage, occupancy, or another agreed formula instead.
How to route solar energy to tenants in a multi-tenant building
What to look for in tenant energy billing software
Not all solar billing services protect your portfolio and your tenant relationships equally. Look for:
Accurate interval data
15-minute reads, correctly handling common areas, tenant turnover, and daylight savings.
Correct utility billing logic
TOU structures and jurisdiction rules like California’s Virtual Net Billing Tariff or New York’s VDER program.
A multi-utility rate engine
Tracks rate schedules across 40+ utilities and updates automatically when they change.
Bills that resemble the utility’s
So tenants can verify charges instead of disputing an unfamiliar format.
Built-in security and data privacy
Encryption, role-based access, and compliance with standards like SOC 2 and GDPR.
PMS integration and reporting
Connects to your property management system, with owner-facing reporting on what solar is producing in dollars.
Generate more revenue than a traditional PPA
A Power Purchase Agreement locks tenants into a fixed rate with a small annual escalator for 20+ years — a bet that leaves money on the table whenever utility rates rise faster than the contract. Billing tenants at actual utility rates instead means revenue tracks the market: our analysis of a 32,000 sq ft office building found utility-rate billing outperforms a fixed PPA by roughly 3× over 20 years.
Why charging tenants using a PPA is a bad idea