What you pay KSEB when you install rooftop solar, and what comes back

A solar quotation covers the panels, the inverter, the structure and the work. It does not cover the payments you make to KSEB yourself before your system can be connected, and those are the ones that surprise people. There are two, both paid in your name, and one of them is mostly refunded. These are the amounts as we explain them in our December 2025 video; KSEB revises its charges with each regulation, so confirm the current figures when you apply.

1. The feasibility fee: ₹1,000 plus GST

The first payment is for technical feasibility: KSEB's check that the transformer feeding your area can take another solar system, and that your connection and line can carry the export. It is ₹1,000 plus 18% GST, so ₹1,180, paid once per application whatever the size of the system.

Two things to know. It is not refundable, even if KSEB finds the transformer full. And the approval it buys is valid for 30 days, which is why it pays to apply only once the design is fixed and the installation can follow within that window.

2. The grid registration fee: ₹1,000 per kW plus GST

Once feasibility is approved, you pay a registration fee for connecting to the grid: ₹1,000 per kilowatt plus 18% GST. The kilowatts counted are whichever is larger, the panel capacity or the inverter capacity, so a 3.3 kW panel array on a 3 kW inverter is charged as 3.3 kW.

This one is largely refundable. 80% of the registration amount comes back to your own account after the installation is completed and commissioned.

What a typical home pays in total

For a 3 kW system: ₹1,180 for feasibility and ₹3,540 for registration, ₹4,720 in all. ₹2,400 of the registration comes back after commissioning.

For a 4 kW system: ₹1,180 and ₹4,720, so ₹5,900 in all, with ₹3,200 refunded.

For a 5 kW system: ₹1,180 and ₹5,900, so ₹7,080 in all, with ₹4,000 refunded.

So the money KSEB keeps for a typical home is a little over two thousand rupees. It is small beside the system price, but it is paid by you, up front, and it is worth knowing about before you compare quotations.

When KSEB is short of meters

A solar connection needs a bidirectional net meter, which KSEB supplies on rent. When KSEB has run short of meters, customers have had the option of buying a tested meter themselves rather than waiting. If that happens in your section, we will tell you which meters KSEB accepts.

Where these fit in the subsidy process

Both payments sit inside the PM Surya Ghar process, before installation: you register on the portal, KSEB checks feasibility, you pay registration, and only then does anything go on the roof. The subsidy itself comes much later, after KSEB commissions the system. The order is set out stage by stage on our subsidy page, and we file each step with you, in your own login.