The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has sought changes in the way surplus electricity from rooftop solar and wind units sold to the grid are metered and billed.
The proposed change has given rise to the fear that it will result in higher electricity bills for 'prosumers' — consumers who also produce electricity and sell to the grid — and rob renewable energy schemes of their attraction.
The KSEB is looking to replace the ‘net metering’ method with the ‘gross metering’ system for grid-interactive renewable energy systems. A KSEB petition seeking modifications to the Renewable Energy and Net Metering Regulations, passed by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission, to enable this shift is coming up for a hearing before the Commission on Friday.
According to the power utility, its petition is in line with the rules notified by the Ministry of Power. The Ministry, it says, had come out with the gross metering scheme given the rapidly declining solar tariffs and revenue loss to DISCOMs.
Under the net metering system, a KSEB consumer, who also sells electricity to the grid, needs to pay only for the difference between the volume sold to the KSEB grid and the power drawn from it.
Under gross metering, the two activities will be treated separately. Electricity drawn from the grid will be metered and billed separately, consumers fear, at a higher tariff rate. Besides, the KSEB wants the rate for the surplus energy supplied by consumers to the grid dropped from ₹3.22 per unit to ₹2.44, which, according to the KSEB, is the ''lowest rate for procurement of solar energy in recent contracts entered by the KSEB.''
According to the KSEB, the net metering system is forcing it to provide costlier peak-hour power to such consumers “almost at zero cost”. ‘‘Net metering was introduced to promote solar generation which was in the nascent stage. However, now solar technology has achieved grid parity and significant addition in solar generation is being integrated to the grid. In this scenario, continuing net metering methodology is creating heavy financial burden on the DISCOMs,’‘ the KSEB notes in its petition.
Gross metering is likely to result in higher electricity bills for prosumers, says C.M. Varghese, president, Kerala Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs and Promoters' Association. It will also have a discouraging effect on solar power schemes such as Soura, he says.
The proposed change is unfair to consumers who have opted for renewable energy schemes attracted by the benefits of the existing method, says A.R. Satheesh, president, Kerala HT-EHT Industrial Electricity Consumers' Association.
