Understanding the concept of Solar net and Gross metering policy
Many of us must have heard about Solar net and Gross metering policy when it comes to the rooftop solar system. Net metering is all about adjusting what has been fed into the grid and what you take from the grid. In gross metering, the consumers are paid a feed-in tariff for the electricity that has been exported to the grid. Let’s learn more about these concepts to get a clear understanding of it.
Net Metering
Under net metering, the electricity generated that has been generated by the Solar Rooftop System will be first utilized by the consumer as per their needs. If there will be excess electricity than the consumption then it will be exported to the grid. When the consumer imports electricity from the grid, the exported electricity gets adjusted against the imports. This helps in lowering the electricity bill of the consumer.
For measuring this energy, the net meter is utilized that records the energy that is imported from the grid in order to meet the surplus energy exported to the grid. With this meter, both the export and import energy are recorded. The actual consumed energy is the difference between export and import energy readings.
There can be 2 possibilities that can come under net metering. Let’s have a look at these in brief with an example:
- Let’s say the consumer is having a monthly electricity consumption of around 1000 units. Apart from this, he has also installed a solar rooftop plant. This plant is able to generate about only 600 units. At the end of the month, the net energy consumption will be 400 units. With this, the consumer will only have to pay for the units that have only be consumed.
- The installed solar rooftop plant is having the ability of generating 600 units every month and the consumer has an energy consumption of 500 units per month. Then, the consumer will get an electricity bill from the grid which is 0 units. The excess 100 units that are generated from the solar plants will be credited to the consumer account for next month’s electricity bill.
Gross metering policy
When it comes to gross metering, the generated electricity is exported to the grid. The electricity required by the consumer is imported from the grid. The consumers will get a tariff for which the electricity has been exported to the grid. In gross metering, the generator will pay for the energy utilized in the billing month as per the tariff decided by APERC.
Benefit in terms of financial comparison
In both the metering policy, a Power Purchase Agreement is mainly signed between the consumer and the BESCOM with some guidelines and rules. This agreement lasts for at least 25 years between both the parties. According to the guidelines of the policy, the consumer has the capability to choose any one of the metering policies that cannot change to the other one. So, the consumer needs to pay proper attention while choosing the policy. It can be said that both the metering policies have different financials that play an important role in selection.
In Gross metering: Whatever the return will be, it will be from solar energy and will be is fixed for 25 years. The generated energy will be exported for this duration of years 25. The cost of electricity that the consumer will intake from BESCOM will increase on a yearly basis.
In Net metering: In this case, the return from the solar is completely dependent on savings of the electricity bill that happened because of the installation of the solar plant. If the electricity bill increases every year then the savings from solar will also get increased.
In a nutshell, it can be said that in terms of long term benefits, easy installation and financials, net metering is comparatively better.
Do you want to know more about net metering and gross metering? Are you interested in the installation of a rooftop solar system? If yes then you must get connected with WhiteShark Energy for availing more information. Here, you will get to know all the details from the experts.
