Why net billing systems will kill Maharashtra’s rooftop solar market

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s proposal to switch from net metering to net billing for commercial and industrial rooftop solar power projects is likely to sound the death knell for a sector already struggling to take off.

Companies in the rooftop solar power segment are protesting draft regulations recommending this switch, saying it kills the business case for setting up rooftop solar power solutions.

The draft changes the mechanism under which power consumers are charged for the grid electricity that they consume. In a grid-connected rooftop solar unit, a distribution company’s consumer generates his own power from the rooftop unit during the day, supplying excess power to the grid. When the solar unit isn’t operational, the consumer draws power from the grid instead.