Net metering is the arrangement that makes rooftop solar work financially, and the thing most people signing a solar contract couldn’t confidently explain. Five minutes here fixes that.
The One-Sentence Version
Your meter counts in both directions: power you pull from the grid adds to your bill, power your panels push into the grid subtracts from it, and you pay for the net.
A Day in the Life of Your Meter
At 1 pm on a working day, your rooftop system is generating hard but nobody’s home, the surplus flows into the grid and your bidirectional meter logs the export. At 9 pm, your AC is running on grid power and the meter logs the import. At billing time, the DISCOM subtracts exports from imports. Generate 400 units, consume 450, and you’re billed for 50, plus fixed charges, which never go away.
In effect, the grid acts as a battery you didn’t have to buy. That’s why grid-tied systems without storage are the default recommendation for most homes and businesses: storage is wonderful for outages, but the grid is cheaper for time-shifting.
Who Can Get It in Gujarat
Gujarat allows net metering for rooftop systems from 1 kW up to 1 MW, and your system is generally capped at your sanctioned/connected load. All four state DISCOMs, MGVCL, DGVCL, PGVCL and UGVCL, plus Torrent Power in its licence areas process applications, do the site inspection and swap in the bidirectional meter. Residential applications ride along with the PM Surya Ghar process; commercial ones go through the DISCOM under the state’s renewable energy policy.
The Annual Settlement: Where Over-Sizing Goes to Die
Within a billing cycle, surplus units are banked and carried forward against future consumption. But at the end of the settlement year, any exports still left over aren’t paid out at retail rates. The DISCOM settles them at the GERC-approved buyback rate, typically ₹2–3 per unit, versus the ₹6–9 you pay for power.
The design implication is blunt:
Every unit you consume yourself is worth ₹6–9. Every unit you export beyond your annual use is worth ₹2–3. Size your system for self-consumption, not for the biggest number that fits on the roof.
This single principle separates a well-engineered proposal from a sales pitch. When a vendor quotes you a system far bigger than your consumption justifies, they’re maximising their invoice, not your return.
What the Application Actually Involves
- Application to your DISCOM (or via the PM Surya Ghar portal for homes) with your connection details.
- Feasibility check: the DISCOM confirms the local transformer can absorb your export.
- Installation by an empanelled/registered installer, with an inverter that meets grid-protection norms.
- Inspection, agreement signing, and meter replacement. The bidirectional meter is the finish line.
- From your next cycle, bills show import, export and net.
Timelines vary by DISCOM and season; a few weeks end-to-end is typical when the paperwork is clean. Ours is.
The Bottom Line
Net metering quietly converts your DISCOM from a supplier into a trading partner, one that banks your daytime surplus and hands it back at night. Get the sizing right and the meter does the rest for twenty-five years.
Grow Energies handles net-metering applications as part of every rooftop system we install. Talk to us about your connection.