Toronto Hydro runs its own net metering application and interconnection process, separate from Alectra, Oakville Hydro, or any other GTA utility. Here's exactly how it works for a Toronto Hydro customer going solar.
Net metering rules are set by the Ontario Energy Board; Toronto Hydro administers the local application. Figures reflect publicly available program terms as of this writing.
Ontario Energy Board rules set the broad framework for net metering across the province, but the actual customer-facing process runs through your local utility, and in the City of Toronto, that's Toronto Hydro rather than Alectra, Oakville Hydro, or Burlington Hydro. If you've read a general net metering explainer and wondered why the paperwork or portal you encountered looks different from what a friend in Mississauga described, this is why: Toronto Hydro's connection application, review queue, and bidirectional meter scheduling are its own process, even though the underlying 1:1 credit mechanics are provincially standardized.
When we install a system for a Toronto homeowner, our team submits the net metering connection application to Toronto Hydro as part of the same package that covers your ESA electrical inspection and building permit, rather than treating it as a separate task you have to chase down. Toronto Hydro reviews the application against its own interconnection standards before your bidirectional meter is scheduled for installation, the device that actually measures power flowing both directions and makes the credit system work.
Systems at or below the Ontario Energy Board's micro-embedded generation threshold, historically 10 kW and moving toward 12 kW at several utilities following a 2026 update, qualify for a simplified net metering application with Toronto Hydro. Most single-family and semi-detached homes we design for in Toronto fall comfortably under that cap. Larger systems, including many commercial installs, can still connect but go through a more detailed Connection Impact Assessment, which takes longer and asks for more technical documentation up front.
Once your system is live, exported solar power appears as a credit against your Toronto Hydro account, applied at the same retail rate you'd otherwise pay to draw that power from the grid. Unused credits carry forward for up to 12 months before resetting, which is standard across Ontario utilities, not unique to Toronto Hydro. Because Toronto's time-of-use pricing structure and delivery charges have their own line items, we walk new Toronto Hydro customers through exactly what the credited bill looks like before the system goes live, rather than leaving that as a surprise on the first statement.
For a Toronto homeowner, three programs typically come into the same conversation: net metering, the HRSP solar rebate, which is mutually exclusive with net metering on the same system, and the City's HELP property-tax-repaid loan, which is financing and can be used with either metering path. We model net metering against the HRSP route using your real Toronto Hydro billing history, then layer in HELP financing if that's the right fit for how you want to pay for the system.
Official sources: Ontario Energy Board – Net Metering and Toronto Hydro.
