lthough the government has denied that it plans to slap a fixed monthly charge on solar panels installed by households, the idea has been floated. It could be revived once the initial adverse reaction to it has cooled down.
There is a view in the relevant ministry that solar panels represent an opportunity for generating revenue. The ministry, of course, is in a deep financial crisis. Speaking recently at a webinar, an official of the power ministry, said only the rich benefit from solar energy. This is not true.
The statement indicates that households using solar power could be penalised at some stage. Before discussing this issue further, let us first review the history of solar panel installation in Pakistan. Relatively few households had installed solar energy units before 2015. They used the free power during day time and shifted to grid power in the evening.
In 2015 the government announced that it will purchase any extra electricity produced during day time by such households. For this purpose they introduced net metering under which all additional power was transferred to the grid. The government at that time purchased the household solar power at Rs 9 per unit; the prevalent grid rate was Rs 15 per unit.
The household could consume these units during the evening when solar power was not available. Then in 2018 it was announced that the solar households should pay a higher tariff for power consumed during ‘peak use’ hours. This measure effectively lowered the tariff for the solar power.
During the past three years the power sector has had to raise the tariff many times as distribution companies failed to recover the cost of the power produced. Rising tariffs made the consumers miserable and made the investment in solar energy more attractive.
The trend has accelerated in the recent months. A large........