When not paying your electricity bills is good

It has been over a year since Surat-based Dipak Patil, 39, last paid his electricity bill. But Patil is not a defaulter, he is a beneficiary of the solar campaign in his city, under which more than 6,000 rooftop solar plants were installed as of May 2019. The government also offered subsidies to encourage homeowners to install the systems. “I had a 2KW rooftop solar system installed, and since then, I haven’t had to pay my electricity bill,” said Patil, who is an electrical engineer.

Although Patil has always been conservative about how much energy he uses, the regular lighting load of the house, fans, two air conditioners, a refrigerator and a pump are well supplied by the rooftop panels. “After the deduction of subsidies, I paid around ₹72,000 for the 2KW system I had installed,” said Patil, whose electricity bill was an average of ₹2,500 every two months.