By Moaaz Manzoor

The revision of net metering to net billing will affect only three-phase commercial and industrial consumers, while 90 percent of single-phase consumers will remain unaffected, according to a media brief available with Wealth Pakistan.

The clarification comes amid an intense public debate over Pakistan’s solar policy, electricity tariffs, and the growing shift of consumers towards rooftop and off-grid solar systems. The issue is important for households and businesses because any change in the solar billing mechanism can significantly impact the economics of solar investment, particularly for users exporting surplus electricity to the grid.

According to the brief, net metering has been revised to net billing, under which surplus solar units will be priced separately instead of being adjusted unit-for-unit against grid consumption. The change will apply only to three-phase commercial and industrial consumers, leaving single-phase households, described in the brief as 90 percent of households, unaffected.

The brief, presented by Energy Minister Awais Khan Leghari on May 31, stated that the government was not discouraging solarization but regulating solar energy as a generation asset to ensure fairness across consumer categories.

The document also showed the scale of solar adoption in the country. It listed 12,296MW of net-metering (solar) and 18,944MW of off-grid solar, compared with 36,397MW of national grid installed capacity excluding K-Electric.

The brief further stated that distributed solar remained a part of the national power plan, with 8GW of distributed solar included in the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan. It also said solarization projects had been launched in Gilgit-Baltistan and Gwadar.

To support smaller solar users, the Power Division said licensing fees for systems of 25kW and below had been removed after NEPRA agreed to the ministry’s request. The brief also stated that the net billing process had been digitized for transparency.

The brief placed the solar billing change within a wider energy planning framework. It said clean energy accounted for 55 percent of generation mix in 2025 and was targeted to reach 90 percent by 2035. It also projected the local fuel share to increase from 74 percent in 2025 to 96 percent by 2035, while the fuel import bill was expected to decline from $2.4 billion in 2025 to $0.3 billion in 2035.

The immediate takeaway from the brief is that ordinary single-phase consumers are not expected to be covered by the net billing revision. However, the impact on three-phase commercial and industrial consumers will depend on the final pricing and implementation of the revised mechanism.

Credit: INP-WealthPk