commercial
Commercial Solar Pricing
Commercial installations from 25 kW to 500 kW, rooftop or ground mount.
We quote after a site survey rather than publishing a per-kW headline. That is not evasion — it is that cost per kW on a commercial project varies more with the site than with the capacity, and a headline number that fits nobody accurately is worth less than no number at all. What this page does instead is set out exactly which variables move it, so you can read any proposal you receive against them.
There is no central subsidy. Start there.
PM Surya Ghar's Central Financial Assistance is for residential connections. The scheme guidelines state that government, commercial and industrial connections receive no CFA at all.
If a proposal offers your factory, hospital, school or office ₹78,000 of central subsidy, it has confused your connection with a domestic one. Treat that as information about the proposer rather than about the project.
Commercial economics do not need the subsidy, for two structural reasons:
- You buy units at a higher rate than a household does, so every unit displaced is worth more.
- Your load is concentrated in daylight hours. Self-consumption at your own tariff is worth far more than export at any tariff, and a commercial load profile achieves it without anyone changing their behaviour.
Accelerated depreciation on solar assets is available to a business under the income-tax rules and materially improves post-tax return for a profitable entity. The applicable rate, the half-year treatment for assets commissioned late in a financial year, and your own tax position are for your auditor to determine — we do not put a figure in a proposal that only your CA can responsibly compute.
What decides capacity — usually not roof area
Under MPERC's RG-39(II) of 2024:
| Arrangement | Ceiling |
|---|---|
| Net metering | up to 500 kW |
| Gross metering | up to 1 MW |
| Group net metering | under 100 kW |
| Virtual net metering | under 100 kW |
| Minimum, any arrangement | 1 kW |
Three constraints bind before capacity does:
- Contract demand or sanctioned load. Your system must not exceed it. On most commercial sites this is the real ceiling, and enhancing contract demand is a separate commercial conversation with the DISCOM carrying its own recurring cost.
- Transformer headroom. Cumulative rooftop capacity on the feeding transformer is capped at 80% of its rating, first-come-first-served; for an HT consumer the same test applies against the feeding transformer. DISCOMs publish available capacity annually.
- Arrears. A consumer with pending dues is not entitled to net, group, virtual or gross metering until they are cleared.
One strategic point deserves its own line: a net-metered or gross-metered prosumer cannot avail intra-state open access. For a large industrial consumer that is a genuine either/or, and it should be decided at board level rather than discovered during commissioning.
Where the system is RESCO-owned, the prosumer is exempt from banking charges, wheeling charges, cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge under net and gross metering.
What actually moves cost per kW
Mounting and structure. The largest single variable. An RCC roof with clear access, a trapezoidal metal sheet roof, an AC sheet roof needing reinforcement, a north-light truss, and a ground-mount with foundations are five different cost structures — not five variations on one. Structures are hot-dip galvanised iron, AA6063-T6 aluminium or hot-dip galvanised mild steel with steel to IS 2062:2011, galvanising to IS 4759, all fasteners SS 304 or hot-dip galvanised, designed for the wind zone of the location at a factor of safety of 1.5 and a 25-year design life.
Roof condition and remaining life. Solar has a 25-year design life. A roof with eight years left in it forces a decision that has nothing to do with solar, and it is better made before the array goes up than after.
Electrical distance and complexity. Cable run from array to inverter to the point of connection, LT or HT interconnection, protection coordination, and any transformer-level work.
Inverter architecture. String inverters distributed across the array versus central inverters is a cost, maintenance and availability trade-off, not simply a price choice.
Module selection. Make, technology and warranty terms. Where the project is net-metered, ALMM applies: List-I for modules has been in force since March 2021, and List-II compliance for cells on net-metering and open-access projects has moved repeatedly through 2026 and remains subject to further MNRE clarification. Sourcing is confirmed against the lists current at the time of order, not at the time of quotation.
Site access and working conditions. A live factory with restricted shutdown windows, height, crane access, and permitted working hours are all real cost.
Capex versus opex. Under capex you own the asset, take the depreciation benefit and take the performance risk. Under an opex or RESCO structure a third party owns it and you buy the units — lower capital outlay, no depreciation benefit, and a long-term tariff commitment whose escalation clause is the thing to read closely.
Timelines the DISCOM is bound by
Technical feasibility must be decided within 20 days generally and 15 days for rooftop solar PV; for rooftop PV, failure to communicate an outcome in that window means the application is deemed accepted. The Letter of Approval issues within 30 days of acknowledgement on receipt of full payment. After the installation certificate is submitted, the DISCOM has 15 days to complete agreement signing, metering and commissioning. Delay by the licensee without just cause carries ₹500 per day of default, payable to the consumer.
The processing fee under the regulation is ₹1,000. The PM Surya Ghar waiver of that fee does not extend to commercial applicants.
Settlement
Export credits carry forward month to month. The settlement period runs from the October billing month to the September billing month of the following year, and unadjusted credit is paid out by 15 November at the lowest tariff discovered in solar or wind bidding in Madhya Pradesh in the preceding financial year — a wholesale rate. The balance then resets to zero.
For time-of-day consumers, export is set off against consumption in the same time block first, with surplus beyond that accounted as though it occurred off-peak. Imported units must still satisfy the minimum-charges provisions for your consumer category.
This is why a commercial system is sized against a real interval load curve. The unit you self-consume is worth your commercial tariff; the unit you bank past September is worth a bid-discovered wholesale rate.