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Better late than never. For a price sensitive market like India anything that reduces bills attracts attention. With fuel costs going up and cheap electricity a thing of the past, the challenge before electricity regulators in the country is to offer a package that ensures continued supply, with the user saving (or making) money as well. After subsidies on solar panels did little to popularise them, over a dozen state electricity regulators have framed guidelines for net metering — a method that would allow consumers to generate electricity using rooftop solar panels and sell it back to the grid, thereby reducing one’s electricity bills.
The concept of net metering is coming to India long after it was introduced in the US — in 1983. It took 21 years for US to fully embrace the practice but already 14 out of the 29 Indian States have issued net metering guidelines.
Sounds enticing? Absolutely, if one is willing to wait over a decade to break even. At present, 4-5 kW solar panels sell for ₹ 4-5 lakh. On an average, a 4 kW panel will generate 3,400 kWh (units) of electricity a year. Assuming an average middle-class household consumes 500 units of electricity a month or 6,000 units annually, it would take nearly 15 years of power generation just to make up the cost of the solar panels.
But given that electricity distribution utilities would need to invest in upgrading all power distribution systems, actual implementation may still be some way off. The neighbourhood transformers and electricity distribution equipment are currently tuned to feeding power, not tapping it.
Without the incentive of large-scale generation, distribution utilities may not find it feasible to implement net metering for individual households by spending large sums to upgrade the distribution infrastructure.
While the guidelines are positive initial steps, it may have been prudent to upgrade the distribution infrastructure simultaneously. But India’s regulators can learn from the mistakes made by other countries.
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