Pakistan solar net metering gives way to net billing
Pakistan solar net metering system, which let a home or business sell surplus solar power back to the grid at the same price it pays for electricity, gave way to a lower paying net billing system in February 2026. Under net billing, exported power is bought at Pakistan national average power purchase price, a rate the regulator sets, not the retail rate a customer already pays. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, known as NEPRA, cut the export rate in half, from 26 rupees per kilowatt hour to 13 rupees per kilowatt hour. NEPRA own legal notifications page states the change came through the Prosumer Regulations 2026, notified 9 February 2026 under S.R.O. 251, and revised 3 more times within the same year, still being revised months after it took effect.
The 26 to 13 rupee cut was forecast in December 2025 and confirmed after the change took effect in February 2026, by 2 independent reports 2 months apart.
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| Net metering | 26 |
| Net billing | 13 |
Existing solar owners keep their old rate
Net metering capacity had been growing fast, from 4.9 gigawatts of connected capacity at the end of 2024 to 6.1 gigawatts by June 2025, with more than 4,000 applications pending, Renewables First data analyst Rabia Babar reported. The rate cut initially applied to everyone, including existing net metering contract holders. Public backlash followed, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif intervened, ordering existing contract holders to keep their original export rate until their agreements expire. So the 50% cut applies to new and newly reset connections, not to every solar owner already exporting power today.
All 3 figures come from the same source, covering net metering capacity in the period right before net billing replaced it.
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| End 2024 | 4.9 |
| Added in 2025 | 1.2 |
| June 2025 | 6.1 |
A rushed process, a disputed justification
Dr. Omais Abdur Rehman, Lead Coordinator of the Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition, argues the approval process gave only the appearance of consultation. NEPRA held a public hearing 6 February 2026 and approved the regulation 9 February 2026, with no clause changed in between. "The public hearing was a tick box deliverable, a procedural formality to create the illusion of consultation," he wrote on Renewables First own site. Pakistan Power Division states solar customers impose 2.8 rupees per kilowatt hour in extra costs on other customers. Rehman disputes this, writing that capacity charges, fixed payments utilities owe independent power producers regardless of use, make up 57% of the price utilities pay for power, built into fixed take or pay contracts, not solar adoption.
What the change does to a solar owner return
Only a small share of Pakistan grid uses net metering today. Renewables First counts 466,000 of Pakistan 37.6 million electricity customers connected under net metering, 1.2% of the total, supplying 1.4% of the 130 terawatt hours of electricity Pakistan sold in the 2025 fiscal year. Muhammad Uzair Yousuf, an assistant professor at NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, modelled the switch for a household that uses 40% of its own solar output and exports the rest, finding net billing cuts the blended value of that solar generation by 44% to 49%. Yousuf states the cut alone will not fix Pakistan deeper power sector problems, naming electricity theft and weak bill recovery by the state distribution companies known as DISCOs, and fixed contracts with independent power producers, known as IPP agreements, as a further cost driver, and says those problems need stronger loss reduction and anti theft work, performance based accountability for DISCOs, and a review of legacy IPP capacity obligations, addressed alongside the rate cut.