PGVCL rooftop solar: how it works in Saurashtra and Kutch

Half the state, twelve circle offices

By its own company profile, PGVCL supplies about 99,771 sq km, which is roughly half of Gujarat's land and more area than any of the other three state power companies. It had 6,772,126 consumers in March 2024. The corporate office in Rajkot runs eight circles directly, and a zonal office at Old Power House Compound, Chavdi Gate, Bhavnagar looks after the other four.

The twelve circles are Rajkot City, Rajkot Rural, Morbi, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Surendranagar, Bhuj and Anjar. Kutch is split between Bhuj and Anjar. Gir Somnath and Devbhumi Dwarka have no circle of their own, so their offices sit under neighbouring circles.

For solar, the office that matters is your sub-division, and there are 292 of them. Its name is printed on the bill. That office receives the papers from your installer, inspects the plant and changes the meter. The circle pages on pgvcl.com list every division and sub-division with phone numbers.

One exception in Kutch: inside the Mundra SEZ a separate licensee sells power, and around Kandla the Deendayal Port Authority is the licensee. If your bill does not say PGVCL, PGVCL's process below does not apply to you.

What PGVCL's Solar Rooftop page holds

PGVCL keeps its solar papers on one page of its website. Most of it is for the installer, but it helps to know what is there before you sign anything.

• The grid connectivity application form. It asks for your consumer number, tariff category, contracted load (with a copy of the last bill), the GEDA registration number and, where needed, Chief Electrical Inspector approval of the single line and earthing diagrams. It also asks you to choose how energy is settled.
• A timeline document for each stage of a rooftop installation.
• Bi-directional meter specifications for single-phase, three-phase whole current, CT-operated LT and HT connections, plus CT/PT and ABT meter specifications for larger plants.
• A sheet of charges for the bi-directional meter and SMC box, and a list of meter suppliers.
• Provisional interconnection agreements: separate formats for homes registered before 4 October 2023 and those under the newer national portal process, plus captive, third-party and REC formats for businesses.
• PGVCL's list of empanelled vendors for the PM Surya Ghar national portal, and its own vendor empanelment guidelines.

The SR quotation and the net meter

For a home, the application starts on the PM Surya Ghar portal, where you choose a registered vendor, and the vendor normally does the filing. Non-residential plants go through GEDA registration and PGVCL's own form. Under GERC's 2024 amendment, plants up to 10 kW need no technical feasibility study, and each step has a fixed timeline.

Once PGVCL accepts the job, it raises a firm quotation for its meter and connection work as a Service Request, known as the SR number. That quotation is paid online on the GUVNL payment page for PGVCL (SRPayPG). PGVCL's own note on that page says that if money leaves your bank but no receipt appears, do not pay again. Contact PGVCL with the SR number and your bank statement instead.

Because PGVCL publishes both a meter charges sheet and a supplier list, ask your installer which route your sub-division is using for the bi-directional meter. After the sub-division inspects the plant and the meter is in, your bill shows units imported and units exported. For homes and small Non-RGP connections they are set off over the billing cycle; on LTMD connections only solar units used between 7 am and 6 pm count, and on HT the same hours are settled each day. Any surplus is bought by PGVCL at a rate set under GERC rules and is not carried forward.

Gujarat's new state top-up for homes up to 2.18 kW is paid through the power company, with GUVNL as nodal agency. See our subsidy guide for how it fits with the central amount.

Salt air, cyclones and Kutch dust

PGVCL's area holds most of Gujarat's coastline, from the Gulf of Khambhat side of Bhavnagar round to Porbandar, Dwarka and the Kutch shore. Salt-laden wind can corrode cheap fasteners and frames within a few seasons, so ask for hot-dip galvanised or similarly protected steel, stainless bolts and junction boxes rated for coastal use.

Cyclones are a design case here, not a remote risk. IMD recorded that Cyclone Biparjoy crossed land close to Jakhau Port in Kutch late on 15 June 2023, with sustained winds of 115 to 125 km/h gusting to 140 km/h. Ask what wind speed the structure is designed for and how it is anchored to your slab.

Inland Kutch and the Little Rann edge bring fine dust and wide open roofs with no shade, which is good for output but means regular cleaning. Plan a water point and safe access before the panels go up.

Workshops, kilns and seasonal mills

Saurashtra's industry is mostly small and medium units on PGVCL connections. Rajkot has dense clusters of engineering workshops, Morbi is known for ceramic tiles, and the Ministry of MSME's profile of Jamnagar names brass parts as the district's main export item. Cotton ginning and groundnut oil mills run hard after harvest and slow down for months.

That mix changes sizing. A kiln that runs round the clock can only use solar by day, and on an LTMD or HT bill PGVCL counts solar only between 7 am and 6 pm. A ginning unit sized on its busy-season bill will overproduce for much of the year. Give the installer twelve months of bills, not one. There is no subsidy for businesses; accelerated depreciation exists, so ask your CA.

Farm pumps and PM-KUSUM

Rural PGVCL consumers often ask about solar for their farm pump. That is a separate track from rooftop net metering. PGVCL's site carries the PM-KUSUM Component B guidelines and application form for standalone off-grid solar pumps, and a Component C page for feeder level solarisation with its own energy account view. Ask at your sub-division which option is open for your feeder.