The Pakistani government has taken a bold decision on the new net metering policy. Under the new policy, net metering contracts will be five-year contracts, and the buyback rates will also be revised every year to ensure network stability in the country through excess power injection. ​

This move is the response to the concerns of net metering participants who were earlier paid Rs. 27 per unit for the excess power that they had supplied to the national network.​The government has reduced the buyback rate for surplus electricity under the net metering policy from Rs. 27 per unit to Rs. 10 per unit. ​ One of the components of this new net metering policy will be that NEPRA will be bringing into line the buyback price with the National Average Power Purchase Price, and there will be periodical adjustments to match the changing trends in the market.​

New Decision About Net Metering In Pakistan

The most important new policies comprise:

• Contract Duration: One of the significant changes is identified in the contract periods. Now, the net metering period will be five years, formerly seven years. ​
• Buyback Rate Adjustments: The rate of purchasing surplus electricity from the consumer will be constantly updated, keeping in mind the National Average Power Purchase Price. ​
• Technical Standards: New net metering customers now have to install inverters with grid interaction and remote monitoring features as well as anti-islanding protection to prevent network instability and ensure safety.​
• Capacity Limits: The limitation is related to distributed generation systems which must be of the same capacity as the consumer’s authorized load. The net amount will be credited to the consumer’s subsequent billing cycle if the exported units’ cost exceeds the imported units.

Bringing changes to the policy is aimed to the balance between the rise of renewable energy among the consumers and the economic strength of the network; however, the situation is still very complex for sense making.

The department said the decrease by more than 3.2 billion electric units sold in the last fiscal period was caused by net metering thus being responsible for Rs. 101 billion additional financial costs to needy consumers.

Even though the extra costs caused by the installed changes might make the time when solar energy system users receive their money back longer, the government is confident that the new alterations will guarantee a more fair and equal provision of the costs and benefits of energy among all electricity consumers.