PM orders review of NEPRA’s new solar regulations protecting consumers

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken immediate notice of the issuance of new regulations related to solar by NEPRA.

A high-level special meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister on the issuance of new regulations by NEPRA, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Atta Tarar, Owais Leghari, Pervez Malik, Bilal Kiani, Muhammad Ali and Ahad Cheema, among others.

The Prime Minister has taken immediate notice of the issuance of new regulations related to solar by NEPRA.

Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Power Division, NEPRA, to file a review appeal regarding the protection of solar consumers’ contracts and to ensure all possible protection of existing contracts.

The Prime Minister said that the burden of 466,000 solar consumers should not fall on 37.6 million National Grid electricity consumers.

The Prime Minister also directed the Power Division to formulate a comprehensive action plan in this regard.

What are the new regulations for solar consumers?

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has reduced the rates for selling electricity to the National Grid.

According to the new regulations, existing solar consumers will sell their electricity to the National Grid at the old rates of Rs 25.32 per unit, but for new consumers, the per unit rate of electricity sold to the National Grid has been significantly reduced by Rs 17.19.

Now, new consumers will get less than 3 times its per unit price, i.e. Rs 8.13.

A new system of net billing has also been introduced for new and existing consumers. The consumer’s unit will no longer be equal to the government unit. Now, the per unit price of all electricity taken from the National Grid will be as per the government tariff and syllabus.

The license period for new net metering consumers has been reduced from 7 years to 5 years.