The Benefits Of Solar Power
(Yasir Ali Khan Lodhi, Karachi)
The National Electric Power
Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), responsible for regulating electricity in
Pakistan, is not ready to approve Net Metering Tariff despite repeated requests
to their officials.
Net metering allows a customer to supply power to the grid when not using the
generated electricity from Solar system. It is implemented in many countries for
a long time, the amount of electricity that is used and supplied is tracked by
reverse meter and the customer is billed for the ‘net’ metered amount of energy
consumed from Grid.
Among the policy options available to encourage the use of small renewable
energy systems, net metering is one of the most appealing and is widely used by
different countries. A key part of these systems seems to be the greater sense
of fairness to utility customers who are generating their own electricity and
getting benefit in billing by adjusting the unit in selling and purchasing by
the net meter and also supporting their electric supplier companies.
N-league Government took steps and started many energy projects to control
electricity shortage from Pakistan which is in execution phase but government
should also eliminate the duty to solar system components like batteries,
Inverters and charge controllers to support the solar system in Pakistan and
also Immediate implementation of Net Metering is the only and shortest way to
control power outage in the country with least investment on Grid tie solar
system. Implementation and duty free system will encourage people to participate
in renewable energy generation as Pakistan has the best potential of Solar
Radiation in maximum areas of the country.
Currently, there are net metering laws or regulations in many of the countries
including India and Bangladesh. It is a low-cost, easily defined method to
motivate consumers to invest in renewable energy sector for the domestic,
industrial and commercial use and can reduce the pressure of shortage of
electricity to the electric supplier companies by installing independent solar
energy electric generation system at their rooftop.