Net metering has, in recent months, become one of the most heated and polarising policy debates in Pakistan. For some, it represents a progressive, green reform that encouraged clean energy adoption and reduced pressure on the national grid. For others, including the government, it became an unsustainable subsidy that transferred costs from wealthier households to lower- and middle-income electricity consumers.

The government has now effectively ended net metering in its previous form. Its reasoning is straightforward: the policy was resulting in a cross-subsidy in which those who could afford to invest millions of rupees in rooftop solar systems were able not only to eliminate their electricity bills but also to sell surplus power back to the government-run grid at favourable rates.

The financial burden created by this arrangement did not vanish into thin air. It was absorbed by distribution companies, whose losses were ultimately passed on to ordinary consumers, disproportionately those who could not afford solar installations in the first place.

It is important to clarify what ending net metering does and does not mean. It does not mean that households or businesses with solar panels will stop saving on their electricity bills. They will continue to benefit from generating their own electricity and reducing their reliance on the grid. What has changed is that they will no longer be able to sell unused units back at rates that effectively turned their solar systems into profit-generating ventures.

Over the past few years, solar adoption surged dramatically. Rising electricity tariffs, frequent load-shedding, and falling solar panel prices made rooftop systems an attractive investment. Grid consumption dropped by billions of units as more affluent consumers........

© The Friday Times