Govt issues licences to set up rooftop solar panels

KARACHI: The government issued at least 12 power generation licences to households during the past one week, allowing them to install rooftop solar panels and transfer surplus energy to national grid, a document said on Saturday.   

Under the terms of the licences, the applicants, from Lahore and Islamabad, were permitted to set up 268.75 kilowatts (KW) of solar systems. The ambit of the licences also includes net metering. 

In September last, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) unveiled net-metering regulations, permitting consumers to generate renewable energy, particularly solar power for their own use, and feed the surplus energy into the network of distribution companies.

Under the Nepra (Alternative and Renewable Energy) Distributed Generation and Net Metering Regulations, 2015, the consumers seeking generation of energy from 1KW to 1,000KW need to apply for a licence with the power regulator. 

The regulations said the surplus solar electricity produced in a month will be carried forward, as an electricity credit in the electricity bill of the next month and so on. “Finally, at the end of the financial year, the net surplus electricity will be credited to the consumer at an agreed rate,” read the document. The scheme provides an incentive to those who are paying high electricity tariffs, such as high-end residential and commercial consumers to go solar.

The framework allows domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, having a three-phase electric meter connection, to be a part of the power generating system by installing the system at their premises: house, shop, factory or open spaces. Under the arrangement, such consumer may sell the additional energy to a distribution company and make stocktaking (calculations) with it at the end of month. The consumers entering the system are called distributed generators.

State-owned Islamabad Electric Supply Company initiated this arrangement at various locations in the country’s capital city.  

With more than 300 days of sunshine, Pakistan has an enormous rooftop electricity generation potential. Each rooftop and open space can act as a solar generator. The country is one of the World’s best countries for rooftop solar – almost 1.5 times better than Germany.

Rooftop solar can drastically bring down the power demand and reduce load on the distribution and transmission system. Power shortfall ramps up to 5,000 megawatts in the country.