The people of Pakistan was going to get another big blow after the increasing electricity prices because the news was spreading that the government will end net metering which we use to sell electricity to WAPDA. As we all know the heat waves in summer are gradually increasing day by day and it is kind of impossible to save yourself from that heat. People living in Pakistan thought now is the best time to purchase this technology which they got by taking out money from their business or by selling their cars.
The large amount of people living in this country purchased the solar panels for their homes. They were supposed get back their invested money from WAPDA by selling the extra electricity which is generated by solar panels. Which they might now not be able to do the only one good thing is the solar panels installed in homes are not going to be taxed. The net metering rate for buying electricity from the public will also be not reduce for those who have their solar system running.
Federal minister of energy Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Sunday said the government will not end the net metering policy in Pakistan
Now let’s hope they keep their words.
Government's Plan for Net metering
As said by the minister of energy Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari
This scheme solar net-metering we will continue encouraging the net metering since it is the scheme close to the heart of PM Shahbaz Sharif,” the minister said.
He added the party was “proud” of the scheme as “a large number of people benefitted from it”.
After this it is clear the the people using net metering will continue to do so they would not be affected at all by the government. The people applying for the net metering is also increasing due to the drop in the prices of solar panels the amount of number have increased by 125pc in which 0.3pc have rooftop net metering connections and the total number have reached to 113,000.
check the below graph to understand how net metering works.
What is Gross Metering?
If the news about ending the net metering was true which seem to be not the gross metering was the thing that public had to use.
Gross metering is done by solar panels that are used in the property of the owner of solar panels. All the generated electricity from those panels first are converted from DC current to AC then it is directly send to the power grid the problem which the consumer will face is that they can’t use the electricity now directly from the solar tech.
Two different meters will be installed to the consumer’s house the first meter will measure generative electricity and other meter will be use to for measuring the consumed electricity. The biggest disadvantage a consumer will face is that he/she now has to purchase electricity at the retail rate and they can’t use directly from their panels.
Pakistan vs Other Countries
The other countries are planning their goal to make the electricity that is used by public to make it more affordable and how much power they should get from renewable sources such as solar. While Pakistan is worried if people start making their own electricity in homes how will they get money from them. Because of this first they said to take tax from this tech but now they are saying to end net metering in Pakistan.
If you check the website ourworldindata.org. In 2010, the Electricity generation from solar measured in terawatt-hours (TWh) per year started from 0.01 TWh and ended at 1.45TWh in 2023 the graph seems to get acceleration year by year and in 2024 it could cross 2.00 TWh.
Also in 2010 the cumulative capacity of solar panels was 0.01GW which was continuously increased to 1.24GW you can see in the below screenshot of the graph.
The total installed solar energy capacity in 2010 was 41.59GW and in 2022 it reached to 1,053GW which means it increased upto 2431.86%.
You can guess the popularity by seeing the graph and the percentage mentioned above.
