ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan has discontinued its net metering system, which has transformed the financial aspects of rooftop solar systems because regulators established a new net billing system that compensates small power producers with reduced payments for their extra power while imposing standard consumer rates for grid access.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has issued the official Prosumer Regulations 2026, which discontinues the unit-for-unit electricity supply mechanism.
The current buyback rate for electricity exported by solar net metering consumers stands at Rs. 25.9 per unit, which may be reduced to around Rs. 11 per unit under the proposed framework.
The new policy will not apply to existing net metering consumers during the validity of their contracts. However, Discos have been authorised to either terminate contracts or transition consumers to the new policy framework upon contract expiry.
Distribution companies (Discos) will charge consumers the applicable retail tariff for electricity supplied from the grid, which may reach Rs. 50 per unit while purchasing extra solar power from solar customers at a much lower rate of Rs. 11 per unit.
Electricity produced by distributed generation plants that use solar, wind, or biogas energy sources with a capacity of up to 1 MW will be settled through net billing instead of unit-for-unit adjustment.
The actual energy supplied and consumed will determine billing amounts, which will occur at the end of each billing cycle that lasts 30 days. The new framework allows net metering consumers to sell their electricity to the national grid at the National Average Energy Price, while their electricity usage will be charged at the current applicable rate.
