The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has approved Net Metering Regulations 2015 in an effort to facilitate the consumers who generate power through solar panels or wind mills, sell to a distribution company and receive monetary benefits.According to a statement issued by the regulator, the net metering regime allows utility customers, having a three-phase electricity connection, to offset some or all of their electricity use with self-produced electricity.Net metering works through the installation of a meter that is able to record energy flow in both directions. The meter records when consumers draw power from the utility grid and use more energy than they produce and also records when they send back energy to the grid and use less than they produce. At the end of a month, the consumer is billed only for the net electricity used. Net metering works only for the grid-connected systems and the excess energy sent to the utility will be paid for at the rate identified in the regulations.To take benefit of the facility, according to Nepra, a three-phase consumer should submit an application with the local sub-divisional office of the distribution company concerned and provide all the relevant information pertaining to the installed power generation system, whether solar or wind. A few problems remain however, and Nepra would be well advised to continue refining their offering further. For one, the application procedure for a party to register as a power generator is rather cumbersome; even in the best-case scenario, the whole process is likely to take more than two months.The amount of discretionary power given to the distribution companies, or DISCOS, in the application process is large and more likely to be used to drag the process out and discourage applicants.The reluctance of the DISCOS to enter into a net metering arrangement will be the next big hurdle that must be overcome in order to find widespread acceptance for renewable power generation at the point of consumption.In fact, Nepra ought to work out incentives for both the DISCOS and the applicants to enter into a net metering arrangement.Beyond the incentives, there are some technical hurdles. During times of load-shedding, for instance, the net metering arrangement will come to a standstill. Considering the long hours of load-shedding in the country, the resultant losses to the customer are likely to be a source of discouragement.The only other alternative would be to use a battery to store that electricity, which defeats the real benefit of net metering, because power storage using batteries is expensive.This has been the experience in India, where net metering was introduced last year; unfortunately, it has yet to find widespread acceptance there. No doubt, Nepra ought to be congratulated for finally taking this important step.But to clinch the deal it will need to think about incentives to kick-start the process, as well as a technical solution to keep the arrangement working during outages.
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