Solar setback

Just when households believed they had found a rare hedge against runaway electricity bills, the state appears ready to move the goalposts. The proposed shift from net metering to net billing — now firmly on Nepra's table — risks turning one of Pakistan's few consumer-led success stories into yet another burden for citizens already crushed by inflation, taxation and energy insecurity.

The change is simple but consequential. Net metering allows solar consumers to offset their electricity consumption at the same rate they pay the grid, giving full credit for surplus power fed back. Net billing, by contrast, compensates that surplus at a much lower rate.

Under the draft Prosumer Regulations 2025, new solar users could be paid as little as Rs11 per unit for exported electricity, while paying around Rs26 per unit when drawing power from the grid. Existing prosumers, too, face a forced migration to this new regime, with tighter settlement timelines and reduced contractual protections. For households and small businesses that invested in rooftop solar precisely to escape crippling power tariffs, this change fundamentally alters the economics of solar adoption since payback periods lengthen and returns shrink. This shift is also fiscally motivated.

Electricity has quietly become one of the state's most reliable tax collection tools. When consumers generate their own power, they reduce not just demand but also the flow of surcharges and levies embedded in every unit sold. The backlash at Nepra's public hearing reflected this frustration. Stakeholders warned that the proposed rules would slow clean energy adoption and contradict Pakistan's climate commitments.

Reforms should instead target inefficiency and theft, not household investment. Existing net-metering contracts must be honoured in full. When citizens are already taxed heavily and receive little in return, punishing them for producing clean energy is indefensible.