The West Bengal government has allowed net metering for individual household rooftop solar panels starting from 1 KW.
A top official said the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) in its recent amendments to the Cogeneration and Electricity Generation from Renewable Sources Regulations 2013 had allowed net metering for individual households from 1 KW but had restricted it to 5KW.
A WBERC official said they have allowed net metering to boost renewable energy use. “Now there is no restriction and anyone can install rooftop solar panel. Earlier regulations did not allow net metering for common households,” he said. “However, a consumer cannot install solar panels more than its own load. That means if a household has an existing electricity load of 2KW then his installation cannot be highe than 2KW even if he has space and interest.”
The net metering concept allows to set-off the number of units produced from the total consumption and the consumer pays electricity charges of only what he had derived from the grid or distribution company. The regulation allows set-off up to 90 per cent of his solar power generation for any month. The new amendment mandates gross metering facilities for solar system installation capacities above 5KW. The commercial benefit
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The WBERC highlights that consumers category eligible for net-metering as per regulation are institutional consumers like government and private hospitals and health centres, hospital and health centres owned and run by any private charitable organization, government and government aided and private schools and academic institutions, government office and organizations, any housing complex already promoted for this purpose by government or any government agency for the development of renewable sources, local bodies like municipalities, panchayats and consumers of any housing complex located in the same premises, commercial/industrial organizations and any institution registered under any statute.
The eligible consumer needs to have three phase power connection.
