residential
10 kW Solar
Ten kilowatts suits large homes and small commercial premises, typically consuming 900 to 1,500 units a month. It is also a regulatory boundary, which makes it a more interesting number than its capacity suggests.
Why 10 kW is a threshold and not just a size
Under MPERC's RG-39(II) of 2024, a rooftop solar application up to 10 kW that is complete in all respects is deemed accepted without any technical feasibility study at all — and the DISCOM must carry out the commensurate enhancement of your sanctioned load or contract demand simultaneously, not as a separate application you file afterwards.
Above 10 kW, a feasibility study enters the process. It is bounded — 15 days for rooftop solar PV, after which the application is deemed accepted if no outcome is communicated — but it is a step, and it is a step at which a project can be told the network cannot take it.
That makes 10 kW the largest rooftop size with the smoothest regulatory path available in Madhya Pradesh, and it is worth knowing before deciding to go to 12 or 15.
The subsidy is still ₹78,000
Central Financial Assistance under PM Surya Ghar is ₹30,000 per kWp for the first 2 kWp and ₹18,000 for the third, with a household ceiling of ₹78,000 reached at 3 kWp. Nothing above 3 kWp attracts any further central assistance.
A 10 kW system therefore receives exactly what a 3 kW system receives. As a share of cost the subsidy is much smaller here — which changes the shape of the investment case, and means a 10 kW decision has to stand on generation and tariff avoidance alone.
The eligibility conditions still apply: a residential connection, capex mode (you own the system), each rooftop eligible once, and CFA computed on rated DC module capacity so batteries and trackers add nothing.
MNRE's benchmark cost for a 10 kW system is ₹4,60,000 — ₹50,000 per kW for the first 2 kW and ₹45,000 for the remaining 8. As on every other page here: the benchmark is the basis on which the subsidy is computed. It is not a price, not a cap, and not a market rate.
Where a residential connection turns commercial
Ten kilowatts is around the practical ceiling for a residential net-metering arrangement in most cases, and the reason is not the array — it is your sanctioned load.
The regulation caps your system at your sanctioned load (or contract demand, on a demand-based tariff). A residential connection large enough to support 10 kW of solar is already a substantial connection. Beyond it, load enhancement typically moves the connection into a non-domestic category, and once the connection is commercial, PM Surya Ghar pays nothing at all — the scheme guidelines exclude government, commercial and industrial connections explicitly.
So the question at this size is not "how much roof do I have" but "what is my sanctioned load, and what happens to my tariff category if I enhance it". That is a survey question, and it should be answered before a proposal, not after.
What it generates and what it offsets
The East DISCOM's published rooftop calculator states a generation assumption of 5 units per kW per day, which puts a 10 kW array on the order of 1,500 units a month before seasonal variation — and seasonal variation at this scale is a large absolute number, so annual figures are the only honest ones.
MP's domestic tariff (MPERC Schedule LV-1.2, FY 2026-27) is telescopic:
| Slab | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to 50 units | ₹4.71 per unit |
| 51 to 150 units | ₹5.67 per unit |
| 151 to 300 units | ₹7.05 per unit |
| Above 300 units | ₹7.24 per unit |
At this consumption almost everything you use sits in the top slab at ₹7.24. A household at 1,200 units a month is paying roughly ₹10,776 on an urban connection — about ₹8,376 of energy and ₹2,400 of fixed charges — and every marginal unit is a ₹7.24 unit. That is the strongest case for solar the tariff produces, and it is why large consumers see the shortest paybacks even with the subsidy diluted.
Fixed charges at this size
MPERC declined, in the FY 2026-27 tariff order, to waive fixed charges for solar households: the network is still maintained and still relied on for backup, seasonal variation and net-metering adjustment.
But above 150 units MP levies that charge per 0.1 kW of deemed load, derived from consumption at 15 units per 0.1 kW — so at 1,200 units it is around ₹2,400 a month, a materially larger sum than most consumers realise they are paying. Because the tariff computes it from consumption, RG-39's Regulation 8A(5) directs that for a net-metered consumer it be computed on units imported from the grid.
At this consumption band that is one of the larger single effects of going solar, and it is worth verifying explicitly on your first post-commissioning bill.
Export at 10 kW deserves real thought
A 10 kW system on a house that is empty during the day will export heavily. Export credits carry forward month to month, but the settlement period runs October to September, unadjusted credit is paid out by 15 November at the lowest solar or wind tariff discovered in state bidding in the preceding financial year, and the carried-forward balance then resets to zero.
That payout is a wholesale rate. Self-consumed units are worth up to ₹7.24; banked surplus beyond your annual consumption is eventually converted at a fraction of that. At 3 kW this rarely matters. At 10 kW it can decide whether the last three kilowatts were worth installing — and it is a question about your consumption pattern, not just your consumption total.
The other constraints
Cumulative rooftop capacity on your distribution transformer is capped at 80% of its rating, allocated first-come-first-served, with available capacity published annually by the DISCOM. Consumers with pending arrears are not entitled to net metering until cleared. And the DISCOM's cost-bearing for network strengthening covers systems up to 5 kW only — at 10 kW, any strengthening required is a project cost to be established at survey.
What moves the price
Module make and technology · inverter make and configuration, including whether multiple inverters or a three-phase unit is required · structure type, height and clearance · roof construction, area and access · cable run length · the wind zone the structure is designed for at a factor of safety of 1.5 · any load enhancement or network strengthening the connection requires · civil work for elevated structures, which need 8 feet of clearance to remain CFA-eligible.