Net Metering in Madhya Pradesh

Net metering is the arrangement that lets your rooftop system push surplus units into the grid and take them back later. Your one-way meter is replaced with a bi-directional meter, and your bill is raised on the net of what you imported and exported.

In Madhya Pradesh the arrangement is not a DISCOM policy — it is a regulation. The governing instrument is the MPERC (Grid Interactive Renewable Energy Systems Related Matters) Regulations [Revision-II], 2024, notified in the MP Gazette on 15 March 2024, as amended by the First Amendment, ARG-39(II)(i) of 2026, notified on 19 June 2026. Both are public documents, and both give you rights with dates attached.

Who can apply, and how big

Arrangement	Ceiling
Net metering	500 kW
Group net metering	less than 100 kW
Virtual net metering	less than 100 kW
Gross metering	1 MW
Minimum size, any arrangement	1 kW

Two further limits decide most residential cases:

• Your system cannot exceed your sanctioned load (or contract demand, if you are billed on demand). A 5 kW array on a 3 kW sanctioned load does not get net-metered until the load is enhanced. For rooftop solar up to 10 kW, MPERC requires the DISCOM to carry out that load enhancement simultaneously with approval — you do not run a separate application for it.
• The transformer feeding you must have room. Cumulative renewable capacity on any distribution transformer is capped at 80% of its rated capacity, and connectivity is allotted transformer-wise, first-come-first-served. DISCOMs are required to publish available transformer-level capacity on their websites every year.

Consumers with pending arrears are not entitled to net metering. Clear the dues before you apply. Net metering and gross metering are also mutually exclusive, and a net-metered prosumer cannot separately avail intra-state open access.

Fees, and what PM Surya Ghar changed

The base processing fee under the 2024 regulations is ₹1,000, payable at the DISCOM office or online.

The June 2026 amendment removed three costs for anyone applying under PM Surya Ghar:

• No processing fee for prosumers applying for net-metering connections under the scheme.
• No separate net-metering agreement need be executed. The agreement is appended to the application form itself and executed online at the time of application.
• No meter-testing fee may be charged by the licensee on such connections.

The same amendment also confirms that the units you generate count towards the DISCOM's own Renewable Purchase Obligation — which is why the utility has a reason to want your meter working.

You may buy the meter yourself to the licensee's published specification, but it must be tested and installed by the DISCOM.

The timelines you can hold the DISCOM to

Stage	Prescribed limit
Technical feasibility study, rooftop solar PV	15 days
Technical feasibility study, other RE	20 days
Letter of Approval, after full payment	30 days from acknowledgement
Connection agreement + meter + commissioning, after you submit the installation certificate	15 days for solar PV (30 for other RE)

Two provisions matter more than the rest:

• Deemed acceptance. If the DISCOM does not communicate the outcome of the technical feasibility study for a rooftop solar PV system within 15 days, your net-metering application is deemed accepted. Separately, applications for rooftop solar up to 10 kW that are complete in all respects are deemed accepted without any feasibility study at all.
• Delay compensation. Where the DISCOM delays without just cause, it is liable to pay ₹500 per day for each day of default.

One cost you should not be quoted: for systems up to 5 kW, the cost of strengthening the distribution network — including the distribution transformer — is required to be carried in the DISCOM's annual revenue requirement, not billed to you.

Your application is deemed received on the date the acknowledgement with the registration number is generated, and the DISCOM must give you a way to track it. Billing disputes go to the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum of your DISCOM.

How the credits actually work

The DISCOM reads the bi-directional meter on your normal billing cycle. Your bill must show, separately: units injected, units supplied by the DISCOM, net billed units, credits carried in from last cycle, credits carried out to the next, and the units the DISCOM counted towards its RPO.

• Export more than you import in a month → the excess carries forward as credited units.
• Import more than you export → you are invoiced after the credits are set off.
• On a time-of-day tariff, consumption in a time block is first set off against export in the same block. Surplus beyond that is treated as if it occurred in the off-peak block.

The settlement period runs from the first day of billing month October to the last day of billing month September of the next year. Credits left unadjusted at the end of it are payable by the DISCOM by 15 November of that financial year, at a rate equal to the lowest tariff discovered in solar or wind bidding for Madhya Pradesh in the preceding financial year. At the start of each settlement period, the carried-forward balance is reset to zero — so unused credits do not accumulate indefinitely.

What net metering does not do to your bill

It does not remove your fixed charges. Under the FY 2026-27 tariff order dated 26 March 2026, stakeholders asked MPERC to exempt rooftop-solar households from fixed charges on units they generate and consume themselves. The Commission declined, holding that fixed charges recover the cost of maintaining the distribution network, are not linked to actual consumption, and remain justified because solar households still rely on the grid for backup, seasonal variation and net-metering adjustment.

What the regulations do provide is that where the tariff computes fixed charges from consumed units, they shall be computed on units imported from the grid. That matters in MP's domestic tariff, because above 150 units a month the fixed charge is derived from consumption — every 15 units, or part, is treated as 0.1 kW of load.

The rest of the tariff still applies: minimum-charges provisions are tested against your imported units, and any duty, cess or other approved charge is raised on the net billed units.

For reference, MP's LV-1 domestic energy charges for FY 2026-27 are 471 paise per unit up to 50 units, 567 for 51–150, 705 for 151–300 and 724 above 300, applied telescopically and identically in urban and rural areas. Households on a smart meter with sanctioned load up to 10 kW get a 20% rebate on energy charges between 9 AM and 5 PM — the window in which a rooftop array does most of its work.

Interconnection and safety

Connection must conform to the CEA (Technical Standard for Connectivity of the Distributed Generation Resources) Regulations, 2013, the CEA (Measures relating to Safety and Electric Supply) Regulations, 2023, and the MP Electricity Grid Code 2021. In practice: anti-islanding protection to IEC/IEEE standards so the array cannot energise a dead line, an automatic synchronisation device, and harmonic distortion within grid-code limits. With battery storage, the inverter must block export during an outage and both automatic and manual isolation switches are required. Up to the metering point the system is your responsibility; beyond it, the DISCOM's — and the DISCOM may disconnect without notice if your system threatens its network.