Maharashtra’s photo voltaic power plans are dealing with a coverage conflict. The central authorities’s PM Surya Ghar Yojana goals to develop rooftop photo voltaic by providing households as much as 300 items of free electrical energy every month, whereas the state authorities is contemplating a night-time tariff hike to handle its energy distribution prices.
Many customers who turned to solar energy to chop their electrical energy payments now fear that new guidelines will make clear power much less reasonably priced.
“We presently solely pay Rs 130 a month, however we do not know how a lot they could cost us within the close to future,” says Chandrakant Shelke, a 49-year-old farmer from Shelkewadi. “With new legal guidelines, who can predict how the federal government will tax us and modify the tariff?”
Shelkewadi is a 100% solar-powered village in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district. It is a mannequin village, self-sufficient in photo voltaic power, progressive, and recognized for its clear power standing. However, the villagers are actually frightened with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board’s proposed modifications in time-of-day tariffs. They fear that these expenses might undo their years of efforts in clear power.
This uncertainty isn’t just confined to at least one village. Across Maharashtra, many customers with rooftop photo voltaic, small-scale resellers and business customers are confused in regards to the state authorities’s shifting technique and new expenses. Industrial and business rooftop photo voltaic customers are fighting no offset profit, extended payback durations and heavy upfront funding for renewable power.
Regulations favour large-scale utilities
The state electrical energy board and regulating fee in Maharashtra have proposed a brand new time-of-day construction within the electrical energy rules. Under the proposal, electrical energy generated by rooftop and different photo voltaic can be priced on the lowest between 9 am to five pm.
But the surplus solar energy generated, which the customers would usually ship to the grid anticipating to make use of it at night-time, would now be out there at a better price. In impact, photo voltaic customers would face an evening tariff hike.
Currently, any further electrical energy generated by the person customers is distributed to the state grid. Consumers later draw energy from the grid, and their exported daytime items are credited towards what they use at evening. With the brand new rules, the best way this further photo voltaic power is saved and used later, and the monetary impacts on the customers, might change.
According to rooftop photo voltaic entrepreneurs, these rules will not be consumer-friendly, and favour large-scale utilities and profit discoms (distribution corporations). Those who’ve put in photo voltaic, anticipating web metering and different advantages, might discover it unviable and it’ll decrease the motivation for putting in rooftop photo voltaic.
Rajendra Patil, a photo voltaic entrepreneur, mentioned, “The Maharashtra authorities lately introduced an extra incentive of as much as 30% subsidy for rooftop photo voltaic customers who’re beneath the poverty line and are consuming lower than 100 items per thirty days. But MSEB has additionally proposed that solar-generated electrical energy offset solely throughout off-peak hours, in daytime. Because of that, rooftop photo voltaic customers can’t offset (stability out power use) throughout night peak hours, that are when most houses and business institutions use energy.”
In impact, customers can’t use solar energy generated earlier within the day to stability out evening time utilization.
He added that rooftop and open entry customers are focused by Maharashtra State Electricity Board in such a method that they can’t get an offset, whereas the discoms proceed incomes income after putting in photo voltaic rooftop. “Meanwhile, MSEB and the state authorities are favouring and selling utility-scale photo voltaic vegetation that profit discoms.”
This time-of-day construction will successfully discourage rooftop adoption and lengthen the payback interval in Maharashtra.
Patil additional argues that the rules are altering swiftly, creating ambiguity and lack of belief within the state discom, in addition to its amended norms and rules. “The rooftop photo voltaic has already had an influence on MSEB’s earnings,” he says, “and that’s why the discom is implementing new revenue-generating methods by blocking rooftop customers from receiving advantages.”
State vs Centre
The central authorities’s rooftop photo voltaic coverage and funding help underneath the rooftop photo voltaic scheme PM Surya Ghar Yojana have been designed to scale up rooftop photo voltaic installations throughout India. However, state-level discoms incurred losses in income and began struggling. Over the previous few years, they’ve launched banking expenses, peak hour variable charges, and exclusions for industrial and business customers.
“The discom is not directly opposing rooftop photo voltaic by placing unfair legal guidelines to dissuade or limit customers, leading to photo voltaic changing into uneconomical,” Patil claims. “This is a breach of the unique settlement between rooftop customers and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, which was to supply zero payments or solely meter leases. Now, customers are being billed for peak-hour utilization, apart from residential customers as of 2025.
A petition filed by Sudhir Budhay, a renewable power guide, and the National Solar Energy Federation of India, has challenged the grid help and banking expenses, warning that this may occasionally trigger as much as 30% decline in new rooftop photo voltaic installations.
Unstable coverage
From 2.82 GW in 2014 to 100 GW in 2025, India’s solar energy capability has grown by 3,450 % on this time interval. But this progress has include a price – state discoms’ declining revenues. In response, many states, together with Maharashtra, have began revising shopper tariffs to get well losses.
“The sensible metre implementation coverage encourages customers to make use of photo voltaic power throughout photo voltaic hours, whereas the discom buys energy at increased charges throughout off-solar hours and forces customers to pay payments for peak-hour utilization,” mentioned Samir Gandhi, a photo voltaic power advocate from Pune. “They are transferring the goalposts, asking you to make use of photo voltaic, however then growing tariffs for utilizing grid energy as soon as the solar is down.”
He added that business and industrial clients who invested in rooftop photo voltaic installations in 2022-2023 face the identical one-sided settlement modification. “Consumers are afraid to belief the federal government, and it seems the federal government is modifying insurance policies for political motives with out together with the patron.”
Ajay Jain, a monetary knowledgeable from Indusbridge, expressed issues, saying that traders search for long-term, secure insurance policies to safeguard their investments. “The identical distrust is seen with sensible meters, so the general public is worried in regards to the authorities’s intention to put in it.”
Battery storage
As power pricing turns into extra dynamic, Battery Energy Storage Systems are rising as a sensible answer to rising tariffs.
Bhavani Singh Rathore, a renewable power coach with experience in Battery Energy Storage Systems, mentioned, “The sample of photo voltaic and non-solar hours has modified; the ToD [time-of-day] reform has a twin impact on rooftop photo voltaic methods. This creates an imbalance. Consumers can use this self-generated power successfully. Whereas power consumed after the solar goes down falls in high-tariff hours. Without storage, customers are pressured to purchase costly grid energy.”
He additionally spoke a couple of doable answer to compensate inflated power payments. “By including even a small BESS [Battery Energy Storage Systems] setup, customers can retailer self-generated photo voltaic power through the day (9 am–5 pm) and discharge it throughout costly peak hours.
“This lets them keep away from high-cost electrical energy throughout peak hours and profit from photo voltaic round the clock. Integrating lithum-ion BESS with a correct power administration system is essential.” Rathore added that Maharashtra has turn out to be India’s testing floor for real-time power intelligence, and people who undertake storage early will lead the transition towards net-zero power existence.
This article was first revealed on Mongabay.
