Residential Service (flat). The default residential classification for RG&E. Almost every house is on it unless someone deliberately moved you. It carries a $25 monthly basic service charge and an all-in cost of $0.17–$0.24 per kWh once delivery, supply, and surcharges are combined.

Look at the service classification printed on your RG&E bill — it will name the rate directly. The default residential classification for RG&E. Almost every house is on it unless someone deliberately moved you.

What is the Customer Benefit Contribution on RG&E?

$1.16 per kW-DC per month, charged on net-metered systems interconnected on or after January 1, 2022. On a 9 kW system that is about $125 a year, every year, for the life of the array. It is charged on installed capacity rather than on export, which is why oversizing costs you twice.

Rochester Gas and Electric · Flat rate

RG&E SC-1 explained

The default residential classification for RG&E. Almost every house is on it unless someone deliberately moved you.

The rate

Residential Service (flat)

Basic service charge

$25 / month

$300 a year, charged at zero kWh. No amount of solar removes it.

Filed RG&E residential rates and tariffs · verified Apr 2026Basic service charge, billed regardless of usage.

All-in cost of energy

$0.17–$0.24 / kWh

Delivery plus supply plus surcharges. Divide your own bill total by your kWh to find your real number.

Filed RG&E residential rates and tariffs · verified Apr 2026Delivery plus default supply plus surcharges. Divide your own bill total by your kWh to find where you sit in this band.

Customer Benefit Contribution

$1.16 / kW-DC / month

On a 9 kW system that is $125 a year, for the life of the array.

Filed Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) rates · verified Jan 2026The second-highest CBC in the state. On a 10 kW-DC system that is roughly $140 a year, every year.

VDER / NYISO zone

B (Genesee)

Determines Value Stack pricing where VDER applies instead of net metering.

Solar

What this rate does to solar economics

Retail-rate net metering applies. Exports offset imports one-for-one on the energy component, which is the strongest export value available in the state.

Show the arithmetic

A household using 10,000 kWh a year on SC-1 pays roughly $2,050 for energy at the $0.21/kWh midpoint, plus $300 in basic service charges, plus $125 in CBC once a 9 kW array is interconnected. A 100% offset removes the $2,050 and leaves the $425.

Midpoint arithmetic for illustration. Your all-in rate depends on your supply arrangement and the season.

Storage

What this rate does to battery economics

Flat rate, so no arbitrage value. A battery here is bought for outage coverage. Treat any 'bill savings from storage' line in a quote as a red flag on this rate.

Watch out

Catches on this rate

RG&E bills separate delivery and supply. The delivery half does not go away with solar, and it is the half that has been rising fastest.
Rural single-phase circuits in this territory hit hosting-capacity limits sooner than urban ones. Check the hosting capacity map before you assume approval is automatic.
The basic service charge continues at full offset.

Interconnection

Getting connected on RG&E

Shares Avangrid's process with NYSEG.
RG&E carries the highest basic service charge of the upstate investor-owned utilities, which means a Rochester-area bill has a larger fixed floor that solar cannot touch.
Suburban Monroe County circuits generally have healthy hosting capacity; the constraint shows up further out in the rural fringe counties.

Application to Permission to Operate

5–13 weeks

Utility-side only. Permitting and install scheduling are on top.

Observed GridReady quote and bill review sample · verified Apr 2026

Where this applies

Places on RG&E

7 New York counties have RG&E customers. These are the ones we have local pages for.

Questions

RG&E SC-1 FAQ

What is RG&E SC-1?: Residential Service (flat). The default residential classification for RG&E. Almost every house is on it unless someone deliberately moved you. It carries a $25 monthly basic service charge and an all-in cost of $0.17–$0.24 per kWh once delivery, supply, and surcharges are combined.
How does SC-1 affect solar payback?: Retail-rate net metering applies. Exports offset imports one-for-one on the energy component, which is the strongest export value available in the state.
Is a home battery worth it on RG&E SC-1?: Flat rate, so no arbitrage value. A battery here is bought for outage coverage. Treat any 'bill savings from storage' line in a quote as a red flag on this rate.
Am I on SC-1?: Look at the service classification printed on your RG&E bill — it will name the rate directly. The default residential classification for RG&E. Almost every house is on it unless someone deliberately moved you.
What is the Customer Benefit Contribution on RG&E?: $1.16 per kW-DC per month, charged on net-metered systems interconnected on or after January 1, 2022. On a 9 kW system that is about $125 a year, every year, for the life of the array. It is charged on installed capacity rather than on export, which is why oversizing costs you twice.

Next step

Find your own number

The band above is a range for the whole territory. Your all-in rate is one division away.

Official source: Rates and tariffs · Solar and net metering · Outage map

Badge key:Filed — from a tariff, statute, or government datasetModeled — from a published model or datasetDerived — calculated by us from the inputs shownObserved — from proposals and bills readers send us

How this page is built

This is a generated page: the structure is shared across locations, the numbers are not. Every figure comes from the source cited beside it, with the date we last checked it. Nothing here is a quote, an appraisal, or tax advice, and none of it is specific to your roof.

Rates and incentive programs change. We re-verify utility tariffs and NYSERDA program status on a rolling schedule and stamp the date on each number rather than on the page, so you can see which specific figures are fresh. Full methodology · Program status tracker · About the Local Energy Playbook

Page content last reviewed April 2026.

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