Net metering is a mechanism to record solar units exported and imported from electricity board. Based on the net consumption, your board generates electricity bill every month.
Solar radiation and power generation from solar panels are intermittent in nature. Solar radiation:
1. Varies During seasons
2. Is less During rainy or cloudy times
3. Is high during the day and less during night times
While your electricity need may not match generation from solar.
A) For residential customers, the need for power and availability of solar generation do not match much.
B) For Industrial consumers
1. During weekends/holiday, power consumption is less while generation from Solar is available.
2. During weekday also, there could be a mismatch in generation from solar and load.
There are two ways to match the Solar generation with load.
1. Store power in batteries and use as per need.
2. Use the grid as storage and withdraw as per need.
In the second option, when excess generation from solar is there, it is fed into the grid. It is imported when generation from solar is less or not available. Net metering helps to record the exports and imports.
It eliminates the need for costly batteries, thereby reduces the cost of solar and enable the use of solar power.
Net-metering needs permission from your electricity board. Most of the states in India offer net-metering. For specific net-meter rules in your state, please refer to our blogs on net-metering by state.
