The Indian Ministry of Power, in a Draft Electricity (Rights of Consumers) (Amendment), Rules 2021, agreed to increase the power cap in net metering to 500 Kilowatts. The rules were drafted according to the suggestions given by the solar industry leaders to the ministry.
In 2020, the ministry of power notified Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, which made net metering provision available only for systems under 10 KW. This rule caused discomfort among the rooftop solar stakeholders as well as consumers. All the rooftop systems which were above the 10 KW mark, were placed under the Gross-metering system. As a result, the consumer who installed a system above the capsize would only be compensated with a ‘Feed-in’ Tariff, fixed by the different state governments.
The 2020 electricity rules caused a stir in the rooftop solar sector. The industry leaders worried that the provisions would reduce the attractiveness of rooftop solar systems, rendering it nearly impossible to meet the 40 GW rooftop solar target by 2022. The industry’s reservations about the 2020 electricity rules were addressed by the ministry of power with the 2021 amendments. According to the amendments, the prosumers are now eligible for net-metering for loads up to 500 kW or up to the sanctioned load, whichever is lower, and net-billing or net feed-in for other loads.
Prosumers who avail the net-billing or net feed-in will be offered time-of-the-day (ToD) tariffs whereby they will be incentivized to install energy storage so that stored solar energy can be utilized by them or fed into the grid during peak hours thus helping the grid by participating in demand response of the Discoms.