Proposed amendments to the draft of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Prosumer) Regulations, 2025 are aimed at effectively reducing the tariff currently paid to rooftop solar energy producers from Rs 25.98 to Rs 9.67 per Kwh.

This is being done despite the prime minister’s earlier instruction to avoid disincentivizing green energy and in particular solar installations. Despite these instructions a 10 percent levy in the form of customs duty was applied in the last budget.

To better understand how this regulation is going to impact the rooftop solar producers we need to segment the users into the following:

Solar IPPs that are typically on 25-year contracts get rate as high as Rs 48/Kwh in the case of Crest Energy but averaging to a tariff rate of Rs 26.73/Kwh for all solar IPPs payable in dollars at the current rate of exchange with payments secured by a governmental sovereign guarantee. This segment remains unaffected due to the change in this regulation.

The second big solar energy installer is Industry which is driven to this course of action to reduce its total cost of energy. Typically, it installs Solar for approximately 40 percent of its total energy need to maintain power factor and grid stability. This segment will remain completely unaffected by this regulation because it is not net exporter of energy and consumes all its produce.

The affected segment is Rooftop Residential Customers, which........

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