What net metering is
Your rooftop system feeds the house first. When it generates more than the house is using, the surplus flows out to the grid; when it generates less — at night, or under heavy cloud — you draw from the grid as usual. A bidirectional meter records both directions, and your bill is settled on the net.
The Gujarat rules that matter
Two limits shape almost every residential design here. Net metering is available for systems from 1 kW up to 1 MW. And the sanctioned capacity of your solar system cannot exceed your sanctioned load — which is the constraint most homeowners meet first.
Gujarat is also comparatively clean on charges: no wheeling charges or cross-subsidy surcharge apply to rooftop net metering here, which is not true in every state.
What happens to surplus
Units you export beyond what you consume are not banked forever. The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission has set a surplus export compensation rate for residential consumers of ₹2.25 per unit, settled annually by the DISCOM.
That rate is the reason self-consumption matters more than generation. A unit you use in your own home offsets a unit you would have bought at your retail tariff. A unit you export earns the export rate. Shifting the washing machine, the pump or the pool filter into daylight hours is, in effect, a return on investment.
Gujarat net metering at a glance
- Eligible system range: 1 kW to 1 MW
- System capacity cannot exceed your sanctioned load
- Residential surplus export compensation: ₹2.25 per unit
- Settlement: annual, by your DISCOM
- No wheeling charges or cross-subsidy surcharge
Who you actually deal with
Gujarat's state distribution companies are UGVCL, DGVCL, MGVCL and PGVCL, each covering a different part of the state. Parts of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat are served instead by Torrent Power as a private licensee. Your DISCOM is named on your bill, and it is the body that handles feasibility, the net metering application, the bidirectional meter and commissioning — not the state holding company, and not the vendor.
What changes on the bill, and what doesn't
Solar offsets energy charges — the per-unit part. It does not remove fixed or demand charges, meter rent, duties or the other line items that appear whether you consume anything or not. A household that generates almost all its own units will still receive a bill; it will just be a much smaller one, made up mostly of the charges solar was never going to touch.
This is worth saying to family members before the first post-solar bill arrives, because a bill that is not zero is often read as a system that is not working.
The order of operations
Application, feasibility approval from the DISCOM, installation, net metering application, inspection, bidirectional meter, commissioning. The paperwork sequence is not optional and cannot be run in parallel with itself. If you are also claiming the residential subsidy, inspection is the step that starts that clock too.
Regulated rates and procedures change. Confirm the current position with your DISCOM before relying on the figures above.