Federal govt to end solar net metering policy?

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has briefed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about its plan to end the solar net metering policy for rooftop solar panels and replace it with a gross metering system.

The government will end solar net metering based on cheaper power generation and will replace it with gross metering aimed at selling highly expensive and unaffordable grid electricity to consumers. The move aimed to discourage solar use and to force consumers to switch back to drastically unaffordable grid electricity.

During ongoing negotiations for “further engagements with the Fund,” the Pakistani authorities have also briefed the global lender about its plans to seek $15.4 billion worth of energy debt restructuring from China, according to government sources.

The Ministry of Energy has informed the IMF that net metering is affecting the revenues of distribution companies (DISCOs) that now face competition in the form of in-house power generation, a media outlet reported.

Gross metering will require consumers to sell all their rooftop-generated electricity to the grid and then buy back what they need.

READ MORE: Govt to significantly reduce solar net metering buyback rates

The government’s ploy to enforce gross metering next fiscal year is in response to the increasing number of households switching to solar energy to escape expensive grid electricity which, with additional charges, costs around Rs. 62 per unit.

However, Federal Mini­s­ter for Energy Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Sunday denied reports regarding the government’s plan to end the policy of solar net-metering and replace it with a new gross-metering mechanism.

While speaking at a press conference at the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) headquarters, the minister rejected the media reports and said the government would encourage the shift to solar power since the policy was the brainchild of the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who ordered to promote it in his last tenure as prime minister.

Decades-old misguided policies of successive governments have forced residential consumers to either leave expensive grid electricity or at least reduce reliance on it by installing their own solar power generation units.

Under the gross policy, rooftop-generated electricity would be fed into the national grid, from which the owner of the solar panel would withdraw the units they consume. This would reduce the monetary benefits of residential consumers, and their in-house generation and consumption would be captured through two different meters.