The session was chaired by Mirza Hamid Hassan, former secretary, Water and Power, and the key

speakers
included: Mazhar Iqbal Ranjha, director, Standards Department, NEPRA, Wajid Ali Kazmi, chief engineer
Planning, IESCO, Faiz Muhammad Bhutta, member, Energy Committee, Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

N et-metering an initiative for mitigating

demand supply gap in the distribution of
electric power in the country is an
encouraging development endorsed by NEPRA
through passage of requisite regulations. Institute of
Policy Studies held consultative roundtable session on,
Net Metering: An Alternate Source of Power for
Electricity Consumers on January 19, 2016. This brief
is based on the proceedings of the subject roundtable.
Net Metering is being practiced in many countries. It
enables customers producing power from renewables
for their domestic use and supply surplus power to the
national grid. Hence, in case of solar energy
production, the meter records the import and export of
Power from and to Grid and consumers would only be
charged for the net- energy consumption.1
Introduction of Net Metering in Pakistan
The introduction of net metering in Pakistan is
significant in the context of chronic energy crisis. Due
to prevalent power outages through load shedding, the
consumers are forced to buy UPS and Generators and
50 lack UPS are deployed now which have added load
on generation because of their low efficiency ranging
from 40 to 60%. UPS have not only added load at
Generation but have added reactive load at Distribution
system. The concept of net-metering was introduced in
Pakistan under the Policy for Development of
Renewable Energy for Power Generation in 2006. In
2012, Pakistan Engineering Council and Planning
Commission both installed on-grid solar power stations
with the capacity of 178 KW each.2
To promote net metering in Pakistan, AEDB
collaborated with NEPRA to prepare draft regulations
on net-metering. The Regulations were launched in the
workshop conducted by NEPRA in 2013, where all the
concerned stakeholders such as DISCOs, Provincial
Inspectors, PEC, Secretary, Provincial Energy
Departments and others participated and submitted
their comments on the draft regulations. Thereafter,
draft Regulations were uploaded in October, 2014 on
NEPRAs website and the letters were sent to all
Stakeholders for their comments. The draft regulations
were revised in the light of stakeholders comments.
Regulations were approved in September, 2016 with its
final version available on NEPRAs Website. These
regulations provide both regulatory and technical
features of the net-metering arrangement including

1
http://www.seia.org/policy/distributed-solar/net-metering
2
http://www.jica.go.jp/pakistan/english/office/topics/press120529.html

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customer service matters such as Billing Requirements,
and Dispute Resolution.
NEPRA conducted a workshop for establishment of
Distribution Code Review Panel (DCRP) in Oct, 2014.
The purpose of establishment of DCRP was to discuss
the integration of power at distribution voltage levels
such as small hydel, net metering through renewables,
and wheeling etc. so that appropriate technical codes
could be developed for smooth operation of net-
metering.
Implantation: Steps taken by IESCO
After the announcement of regulations by NEPRA, the
responsibility of the implementation lies with the
distribution companies. Among DISCOs, IESCO has
taken lead with by initiating following steps after the
issuance of Net-Metering regulations: -
It constituted a committee for the formulation
of departmental Standard Operating
Procedures (SOPs). SOPs were formulated
and approved within a month;
It started educating field officers for the
implementation of net metering;
It processed first application of connecting
Parliament House Building 1000 kw load.
Application has been forwarded to NEPRA.
The work has started over this project.
Other DISCOS have concerns over net metering and
had not taken any step forward. To start with, they can
take guidance from IESCOs experience.
Issues and Challenges
There are several technical issues in the
implementation of Net Metering including ambiguities
in the NEPRAs regulations, as well which need to be
addressed. Following are some of the issues that are
needed to be addressed.
The processing time required to approve an
application for net-metering is lengthy. It
will take approx 100 days to process an
application of ____load may exceed
further in real time.
According to SRO-9.5, The grid
connected inverters and generators shall
comply with Underwriter Laboratories UL
[2]
1741 standard (Inverters, Converters,
Controllers and Interconnection System
Equipment for Use with Distributed
Energy Resources) which addresses the
electrical interconnection design of various
forms of generating equipment, IEEE 1547
2003, IEC 61215, EN or other international
standards. UL1741 is a US standard and
needs to be followed by the net metering
applicant. It was discussed that it is a
stringent standard and difficult to be
practiced. Instead of referring to a fixed
standard, the reference to other
international standards creates ambiguity
and was proposed to be substituted with
fixed standards in line with other
applicable standards in Pakistan and
Equivalent IEC standards should be
mentioned which are already applicable in
Pakistan and the sentence Other
International Standards should be
eliminated.
The agreement annexed to Net-metering
regulations, only three phase consumers
have been declared to be eligible. Hence it
does not addresses single phase consumers
whose requirement is 1 or 2 Kilo watt.
Interconnect study charges are not
defined.
The issue of billing is yet not resolved. Net
metering has been installed at PEC but
billing has not yet been started due to
certain unknown reasons making it
difficult for ordinary consumers to take
benefit of net-metering.
The staff of the DISCOs are not adequately
trained to deal with the issue of net
metering.
DISCOS have not defined the process to
deal with the consumers such as the forum
for entertaining applications.
In case of load shedding, it would require
to ensure that the grid is off and the surplus
power stops supplying to the grid.
The installation cost of net-metering
infrastructure should not be high,
 otherwise it would discourage consumers.
It was also learnt that even the existing
digital meters being installed by utilities
can be used for net-metering after requisite
programming.
The equipment generating renewable
energy is the critical most important
component of the whole chain enabling
net-metering and AEDB was spotted as the
organization to ensure standardization
mechanism at import and local assembling
of solar panels in Pakistan. AEDB
informed that such ECC approved
summary and standards implementation is
in process and consultation with concerned
departments and Pakistan Standard and
Quality Certification Authority is in
process.
The absence of certified installers was
highlighted during the session which will
ensure implementation of net metering
regulations at the time of installations.
Recommendations
Following measures can be taken to promote and
implement net metering in the country:
DISCOs should set up clear SOPs and
provide one window operation. NEPRA,
AEDB, DISCOS and PEC should play
active role for the education of electrical
inspectors/ DISCOS official/ masses
regarding net metering regulations.
Total time taken from application to
interconnection should not be more than 15
days up to 20KW and 45 days from 20 to
100KW and 60 days from 100KW to 1
MW.
SOPs should clearly define the
Interconnect study charges as per slabs and
who will conduct this study. There should
be approved consultants for undertaking
Interconnect study.
IEC equivalent to UL standard 1741 for
inverters should also be mentioned as IEC
standards are mostly practiced in Pakistan
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and number of standards should be fixed
instead of mentioning all other
International standards.
The NEPRA prescribed Net-metering
Agreement is for three years that would be
onerous for consumers. Hence it should be
for 10 years at least.
List of approved manufacturers for
Inverters, a key component of renewable
energy/solar energy plants should be
included. AEDB can assist in this regard.
The concept of local service providers for
installation, surveys in the country;
Electricians should be educated and trained
in his respect.
Manufacturers of bi-directional meters
should be encouraged. The subsidy given
on tariff, should be given on solar panels.
It can help promote solar panels by
replacing UPS which is burdening the
national grid. To give the incentive, there
should be understanding between NEPRA
and DISCOs that the feeders connected
with net metering would be exempted from
load shedding during the day time.
Specification of meters may be notified by
NTDC.
NEPRA should lead the introduction and
speedy implementation of net-metering
regime inter alia by creating a Net
Metering Desk at its Consumer Affairs
Division, setting up targets for utilities to
promote net-metering in their consumers.
In this regards a hand book can be
developed to create greater awareness and
assist the consumers in adoption of net-
metering.
Conclusion
Pre-requisite for the promotion of net metering
across the country is the popularization of
Renewable energy at the consumer level. Its
implementation can only be successful with the
involvement of community that needs mass
awareness program. Coordination among all the
 stakeholders is required to improve the the end of the session that NEPRA, IESCO, PEC,
regulations; to overcome the technical hurdles and AEDB, and IPS can make a joint forum to push the
to facilitate the consumers by easing the process of issue of net metering through an integrated effort.
net metering. Therefore, it was suggested towards

Prepared by an IPS Task Force | For queries: Mairaj-ul-Hamid, Asst. Research Coordinator, mairaj@ips.net.pk | www.ips.org.pk

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