To avoid high electricity bills, household consumers have installed solar panels on a large scale. If there are no buyers of electricity, the problem has increased for the government and the authorities have prepared to reduce the electricity rates received by consumers in net metering.
According to a report by Daily Business Recorder, customers are currently getting 21 rupees per unit in net metering, but this rate is being considered to be reduced to 11 rupees per unit.
This huge reduction in rates will result in a loss of Rs 10 per unit to consumers.
The problem for the government is that it has to pay a certain amount of capacity charges to the power generation companies whether it buys power from them or not.
Sources told the Business Recorder that due to large-scale installation of solar panels, the government’s plan for payment of capacity charges has become unbalanced. The burden of paying the charges is shifting to the poor consumers.
These sources say that the government does not want to discourage solar power but the rate of 21, 22 rupees per unit is unacceptable.
Sources say that at this rate, solar panel installers are recovering their entire cost in just one and a half years, while the government wants the recovery period for solar panel installation to be increased to 10 years.
The Power Division argues that consumers have installed solar systems for their own needs, so the buy-back rates for the excess power being generated should be in line with the purchasing power of power distribution companies.
These sources also said that currently solar panels capable of generating 6,000 megawatts of electricity have been imported in Pakistan, while the production of electricity from solar energy has reached 3,000 megawatts.