The Indian Government has proposed changes that could shift larger rooftop solar systems away from unrestricted net metering toward net billing, battery storage and time of day pricing. The Draft National Electricity Policy 2026 specifically says net metering beyond 5 kW should be discouraged.
What changes under net billing?
Suppose a household exports 100 units of solar power during the day and later imports 100 units from the grid.
Under net metering, the exported and imported units can broadly cancel each other out:
100 units exported − 100 units imported = roughly zero net energy charge.
Under net billing, exports and imports are priced separately.
If grid electricity costs ₹8/unit and exported solar receives ₹3/unit:
100 units imported = ₹800
100 units exported = ₹300 credit
Consumer still pays ₹500
So the consumer supplies the same 100 units to the grid but does not receive the same value back.
Could this slow rooftop solar adoption?
India wants rapid rooftop solar growth. But if net billing significantly reduces the value of surplus solar, payback periods can become longer.
Households and businesses may respond by installing smaller systems or not installing solar at all.
If batteries are preferred, are we ready for the waste?
The proposed direction also encourages battery storage instead of using the grid for energy banking.
But large-scale battery adoption raises another question: does India have a sufficiently mature collection and recycling ecosystem for millions of additional lithium-ion batteries?
India has Battery Waste Management Rules and an EPR framework, but the lithium-ion recycling ecosystem is still developing. Solar policy should not create a future battery-waste problem while trying to solve a grid-management problem.
What about consumers who already invested?
Rooftop solar is a long-term investment. Many consumers invested based on expected future electricity savings under the prevailing net-metering framework.
Changing those economics afterwards risks becoming a trust break with consumers.
Existing installations should ideally be grandfathered under their original arrangement, or given a clear and sufficiently long transition period.
The larger concern
There are legitimate reasons to reform net metering. The grid has real infrastructure and balancing costs.
But replacing or weakening net metering through net billing should not make rooftop solar financially unattractive, penalise early adopters, or shift storage costs and battery-waste risks onto consumers.
The objective should be to fix grid economics without slowing India’s rooftop solar transition.