Net Metering in Gujarat Explained: Your Bill After Solar

With net metering in Gujarat, a two-way meter counts the units you take from the grid and the units your panels send back. At the end of each billing cycle, the units you exported are subtracted from the units you imported, and you pay only for the difference at your normal tariff. If you exported more than you used in that cycle, your DISCOM buys the extra units from you at a fixed rate set by the regulator.

That is the whole idea. The details below explain how it shows up on your bill and which rules apply.

What the net meter does

When you install grid-connected solar, your DISCOM (UGVCL, MGVCL, DGVCL, PGVCL or Torrent Power) replaces your old meter with a net meter. It records two numbers separately:

• Import: units you draw from the grid, for example at night or on cloudy days.
• Export: units your panels push into the grid when they produce more than your home is using at that moment.

During the day, your home uses solar power first. Only the leftover goes to the grid. At night, you draw from the grid as usual. You don't have to switch anything. It all happens automatically.

This is how an on-grid system works. A hybrid system adds batteries, and an off-grid one has no grid connection at all; our post on on-grid, hybrid and off-grid solar compares the three.

To check these two numbers yourself, see how to read a solar net meter in Gujarat.

How each bill is worked out

The rules for this come from the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC). For residential consumers, energy accounting is done on a billing cycle basis. That means all the units you exported during the cycle are set off against all the units you imported in the same cycle, whatever time of day they happened.

Here is a simple example in units:

	Bill A	Bill B
Units imported from grid	400	200
Units exported to grid	250	320
Result	You pay for 150 units	120 surplus units bought by DISCOM

In Bill A, you used more than you exported, so you pay for the net 150 units at your usual tariff. In Bill B, you exported more than you used, so your energy bill for units is zero and the 120 extra units are bought by the DISCOM.

GERC's rules say the bill must show the units injected, the units supplied by the DISCOM, the net units billed and the net units exported, each separately. So you can always check the arithmetic yourself.

One thing to note: under the current rules, banking is allowed within one billing cycle. Surplus units do not carry forward to the next bill as credit. They are settled by purchase at the end of the cycle.

What happens to your surplus units

This is the part people often misunderstand. Surplus units are not paid back at the same rate you pay for grid power. Under GERC's net metering regulations (Third Amendment, 2022), for self-owned home systems, the DISCOM buys surplus units:

• at a fixed rate per unit set in the regulation for the first 5 years from commissioning, and
• after that, for the rest of the system's term, at 75% of the average tariff discovered in GUVNL's recent competitive bids for non-park solar projects. GUVNL declares this rate every six months.

The fixed rate is lower than what you pay for units bought from the grid. In practice, that means a unit you use yourself (or set off against your own imports) is worth more to you than a unit you sell.

If your system is installed under PM Surya Ghar, GERC's Fifth Amendment (November 2025) says no separate written connectivity agreement is needed. Instead, your DISCOM gives you a written communication stating the date your agreement starts and the rate it will pay for surplus energy. Keep that letter safely.

Why system size matters more than timing

Because residential accounting is done over the whole billing cycle, you don't need to rush to run your washing machine at noon to "use up" the solar. A unit exported at noon cancels a unit imported at night in the same cycle.

What matters more is how big the system is compared with your usage. If the system is sized close to what your home uses in a typical cycle, almost every unit you generate is set off against your own consumption. If it is much bigger, more units end up as surplus and earn the lower purchase rate. A good installer will look at a year of your bills before suggesting a size. As a rough guide, a system in most of Gujarat produces about 4 to 4.5 units per kW per day, less in the monsoon.

What stays on your bill

Net metering reduces the units you pay for, but it does not always make the bill disappear. Any units you draw beyond what you exported are charged at the applicable tariff for your category, as set by GERC, and parts of the tariff that don't depend on units, like fixed charges, can still appear. Read your first few bills after solar carefully so you know what is normal for your connection.

Also, GERC's regulations say no banking charges apply on solar power consumed by residential consumers. If you see something you don't understand, ask your DISCOM's local office.

A few more rules worth knowing

• Size limit. Net metering is allowed for systems from 1 kW up to 1,000 kW, and residential systems are allowed irrespective of your sanctioned load (within those limits).
• Older systems. A system keeps the accounting rules of the regulations under which it was commissioned. If you later add capacity, the extra part comes under a fresh agreement on the rules in force then.
• Rules may change. GERC published draft Grid Interactive Distributed Renewable Energy Sources Regulations in May 2026, which would replace the 2016 net metering regulations once notified. For residential users the draft keeps billing cycle set-off without banking charges. Until a final version is notified, the existing regulations apply.

You can find the regulations and amendments on the GERC renewable energy regulations page.

Who applies for the net meter

Usually your installer files the net meter application with your DISCOM, and the DISCOM installs the meter after the system is in place and inspected. For PM Surya Ghar, the application and documents also go on the national portal, and the subsidy is released after the DISCOM's inspection. You can read more on our PM Surya Ghar subsidy page.

Before you pick an installer, it helps to know what to ask. Our post on how to check a solar installer in Gujarat has a short checklist.

Before the meter is fitted, there is usually a meter charge to pay against your application. Solar meter payment in Gujarat explains it. If your bill says Torrent Power, read Torrent Power rooftop solar in Gujarat.

Your next step

Collect your last 12 months of electricity bills and add up the units for each billing cycle. That one number tells an installer how big a system makes sense for you under net metering, and it lets you judge whether their suggestion is sensible. If you want, we can connect you with one checked installer near you to take a look.