Net metering in Kerala, explained properly

Net metering is the quiet contract at the heart of every on-grid system in Kerala, and almost nobody who signs it could explain it. Since it decides how your solar turns into rupees, it deserves ten clear minutes.

The machine: one meter, two directions

After commissioning, KSEB replaces your meter with a bidirectional one that counts imports and exports separately. Daytime surplus flows out and is banked as units; nights and cloudy days draw units back in. At each bimonthly bill, KSEB nets the two: import minus export. You pay for the difference if you drew more than you sent, and surplus carries forward as credit if you sent more than you drew.

The part everyone misses: annual settlement

Banked credits are not a savings account that grows forever. Once a settlement year, unused surplus units are settled at a rate set by the regulator, and that rate is meaningfully below the retail tariff you pay for imports. The practical lesson: units you consume yourself are worth full retail value, units you export are worth less. Systems sized to your real consumption therefore beat oversized systems on returns, which is exactly why our surveys size against your bills rather than your roof area.

Reading your first solar bill without panic

Solar bills confuse new owners because consumption appears alongside export and banked figures. The three numbers to find: units imported, units exported, and the net billed units. If the bill looks wrong, check the inverter's generation total first: generation roughly equals your daytime consumption plus exports, so the three numbers cross-verify each other. Our meter-reading guide walks through a real bill line by line.

Regulations evolve, and proposals to revise metering arrangements surface periodically, which we track in our policy coverage. Systems commissioned under current net metering keep the arrangement they signed. One more reason the right time to decide is while the current rules are the rules.