Can a consumer sell his extra power? A novel idea perhaps for the people of Pakistan which is only following the lead of advanced countries.
Instead of staying just as consumers, the clients of power distribution companies have been provided a modern facility of selling the extra electricity, which they could generate easily through the solar and wind systems.
Following successful models of several western and eastern countries, the government ultimately introduced this technology to facilitate power-producing customers and help overcome the unending power deficit in the country. “The Net Metering Regulations” recently introduced by the federal government paves the way towards establishment of flexible regulatory regime where any consumer can install solar panels and sell excess electricity to concerned distribution company by following a short simple and easy process.
“The system would help in fulfilling the power generation gap resulting in reduced load shedding,” Chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Brig (r) Tariq Saduzai said.
The Net Metering would not only ensure uninterrupted power supply for consumers but would go a long way in establishment of clear and consistent tariff regime where consumers would be charged the same rate as what they receive from the distribution company, said the NEPRA chairman.
“This system would promote electricity generation through solar and wind energy which is clean, environment-friendly and renewable. Promoting clean and renewable energy is also a priority of the government,” he added.
Any consumer who meets the requirements of a distributed generator by being a three phase domestic, commercial or industrial consumer can submit application to distribution company along with necessary documents and DISCO would acknowledge its receipt and inform whether or not the application is complete in all respect.
If the distribution company is satisfied that the consumer qualifies as distributed generator, they will enter into a standard agreement as approved by the authority and distribution company would send a copy of the agreement to the authority within seven days.
The government has made Net Metering Arrangement very simple to attract more and more consumers.
“The system includes five steps including, submission of application by the consumer, technical review of application by DISCO, signing of net metering agreement, payment of interconnection charges by the consumer, sale/purchase of electricity,” said Ayesha Tassaduq, NEPRA spokesperson when contacted.
Many countries like the USA, Germany, Australia, Brazil, the UK, Japan, India, China and Thailand are now generating electricity in bulk through solar system.
She was of the view that Pakistan received one of the best solar irradiation in the world and had a potential to generate over 2.324 million megawatts electricity per annum through solar thermal and photovoltaic systems but this potential was yet to be tapped.
Solar irradiation in Pakistan and India stand at 1,900 (kWh/m2), against China’s 1,500 and Germany’s 1,200. India has already installed solar power projects having 3,000 mw capacity, China 22,000 mw and Germany succeeded in installing 38,000mw of solar power generation capacity.
The NEPRA has approved and uploaded on its website, the Net Metering Regulations 2015, to facilitate all those consumers having an excess power generated through solar (PV) panels or wind power to be sold to their concerned distribution company (DISCO) and receive monetary benefits.
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 by utilizing a meter that is able to record energy flow in both directions, Ayesha said.
The meter records when consumers are drawing power from the utility grid (i.e. using more energy than they are producing) and also when energy is being sent back to the grid (i.e. using less energy than they are producing). At the end of a given month, the consumer is billed only for the net electricity used.
“The consumer may produce five units of electricity every hour, with a five KW system costing around Rs 650,000-700,000. This adds up to a total of 35 units every day, considering the average daylight for seven hours available for solar PV panels to operate,” she said.
Producing 35 units daily, a consumer will produce 1050 electricity units every month (30 days). Assuming that the consumer is being paid Rs 13 per unit sold, the total amount of money that can be made every month would be around Rs 13,650. If there is an average consumption of 600 units/ month for domestic use, 450 units can still be sold.
The consumer will still be saving, even if there is no surplus energy available to be sold to DISCOs. For an average consumption of 2000 units/ month, the consumer will only be charged for the extra 950 units/month (2000-1050).
Meanwhile, Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) General Secretary, Mian Sultan Mehmood, said the system would empower every household and individual to generate solar power and sell it to the national grid at higher rates and purchase power from DISCOs at lower price.
“In this way, which is implemented everywhere in the world, solar energy, having great potential in the country, will get boost within couple of years, also minimizing load shedding menace,” he said.
He said in 2002, only 7,000 households were using solar panels there, which had now crossed one million households or some five million people, whereas they had set a target to cross 2.5 million by 2014.
Solar Alternative Energy Development Board Director Irfan Yousaf told that the net metering experiment was very successful in Germany, Spain, USA, India and other European countries. He said the net metering was also very beneficial owing to non-transmission losses. He said that the Pakistan Engineering Council had already generating 178 Kwh and successfully using net metering. He was of the view that it would not only improve load management but also greatly help cope with menace of power load shedding.