If you own a rooftop solar system or are looking to install one soon, you will find a method of billing that reduces your electricity costs further. This billing technique is known as net metering, and after understanding the concept, you will realize why many solar panel owners use it.
What is Net Metering?
As per definition, net metering entails getting a credit on any excess solar energy that you feed back to the grid. Most days, your solar panel produces much more energy than the amount that your home consumes. This excess electricity does not go to waste, as it is fed back to the grid and credited.
To make it simpler for you to understand the concept, consider a scenario where your household consumes 20 units of energy daily while your rooftop system produces 30 units of energy. After using up all your energy, the excess 10 units of energy is fed to the grid and recorded as a credit on your bill.
How Does Net Metering Work?
So how does net metering work in practice? Your regular meter gets swapped for a bidirectional one that tracks both the power you draw and the power you send out. It moves forward when you’re pulling electricity from the grid and backward when your panels are feeding power in. At the end of each billing cycle, the utility calculates your net usage, which is simply your consumption minus your exports.
If you end up producing more than you use, that credit usually rolls over to your next bill rather than being paid out in cash, though a few states do offer annual payouts.
Net Metering Benefits
The net metering benefits are hard to ignore. Bills can drop by 50 to 100 percent depending on your system size and usage. The payback period on your solar investment often shortens too, sometimes from six years down to three or four. And since surplus energy isn’t wasted, you don’t need to invest heavily in batteries either.
Policies Worth Knowing
Net metering rules differ by state in India. Most states cap eligible system size around 1 MW and limit total net metered capacity to about 5 percent of peak demand. Credits are usually valid for a year before they reset, so it helps to size your system based on your actual annual usage rather than going bigger than necessary.
Before installing, it’s worth checking your state’s specific net metering policy, since approval processes and tariffs can vary.
India’s largest solar panel manufacturer, Waaree, now has over 25.8 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity, along with rooftop solar solutions and dedicated support to help you get net metering approvals sorted with your local discom. With a nationwide service network, going solar and staying worry-free becomes a lot simpler.
