Faisalabad district · 35,019 tubewells
The pump is the load. Everything else is a roof.
Faisalabad district has 35,019 registered tubewells. A farm solar system here is not a marginal addition to a household bill — for a farmer running a diesel pump, it replaces the single largest recurring cost on the holding. That makes the arithmetic unusually clear, and unusually worth getting right.
01 — The scale of it
35,019 pumps, and 482 subsidised ones.
Punjab Energy Department and Agriculture Department registration figures, as reported in Pakistani press coverage of the provincial tubewell schemes. The 482 figure is the number of subsidised slots available in Faisalabad district; the rest of the registered pumps have to be funded by the farmer.
The split, and why it matters
Of the 35,019 pumps in the district: 22,384 run on diesel, 6,493 on electricity, and 6,142 on a tractor — so roughly four in five have no grid connection at all.
That is the opportunity, and also the problem. A pump with no grid connection can be solar from day one with no net billing application, no interconnection queue, and no dependence on a distribution company that may not reach the field. A pump already on the agricultural tariff needs a different conversation entirely.
Where the crop water actually is
Faisalabad is the largest agricultural district in Punjab, with the M-3 area at 4,485 acres, the Allahabad Industrial City area at 3,966 acres, and Value Addition City at 233 acres of designated processing and value-addition land.
The tube wells around those estates, not the ones on the city edge, are where solar pumping changes a balance sheet rather than a lifestyle.
02 — The free scheme is closed
The Chief Minister's Free Solar Scheme has stopped taking registrations.
This matters because the shape of that scheme tells you exactly which end of the market the government is targeting — and it is not the end you are probably in.
The CM Punjab Free Solar Scheme
- Systems offered100,000
- System sizeUp to 2 kW
- Expected outputUp to 200 units a month
- StatusRegistrations closed
A farm that pumps for a living
- Typical pump5–20 HP
- That needs, from a 2 kW systemAlmost nothing
- GapOne to two orders of magnitude
- StatusYou pay for it yourself
Note the zero overlap. A 2 kW system producing up to 200 units a month does not run a tubewell, and it does not touch the self-pay residential market. If you have been reading about the free scheme and the subsidy lists, neither of them is about a system large enough to pump. Do not let anyone size your quote against that ceiling.
The 2 kW ceiling and 200-unit figure are from the published scheme design. The free scheme is separate from the Punjab Solar Tubewell Scheme, whose 2026 status we could not confirm from a primary source and therefore do not state here. If you have a current government offer in writing, bring it — it may change the arithmetic, and we will price against it.
03 — The arithmetic
What a pump actually costs to run, and what it costs to run on solar.
A worked example. Bring your own numbers — the diesel price moves every fortnight and we will not quote a number that goes stale on this page.
| Diesel | Solar, no grid connection | Solar on the grid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy you need | About 1,340 units a month — 10 HP × 6 hours × 30 days, at nameplate, before pumping losses | ||
| Array this actually needs | About 13 kW — the arithmetic is 10.6 kW, and we would not size it to the arithmetic | ||
| What you pay per unit | Diesel price × efficiency | Nothing — it is yours | About Rs 28.90 (see below) |
| Monthly bill | Moves with the oil price | Fuel cost only | About Rs 38,700 in energy charges, before the monthly minimum |
| What you still pay | Servicing, filters, fuel logistics | Same, plus panel cleaning | Same, plus a monthly minimum of Rs 2,000 even at zero consumption |
| Downtime risk | Fuel supply | Panel cleaning in dust season | Panel cleaning and load shedding |
The agricultural energy rate of Rs 28.90 per unit could not be obtained from FESCO's own published schedule and comes from a practitioner source, so read the rate off your own bill before relying on it. The Rs 2,000 monthly minimum on an agricultural connection is the figure that makes the off-grid option attractive, and it is also the reason nobody here can honestly promise you a zero bill. Diesel prices change every fortnight; we deliberately do not print a figure that would be wrong within a month.
04 — What we do here
Two companies, one workshop.
Our solar business sits alongside an electrical and pump business that has traded in Faisalabad since 2015 under the same name and shares management. That is not a marketing line. It is why we can size a pump properly instead of guessing.
Solar tubewells
Ground-mounted or rooftop arrays sized to your pump's actual duty, with a proper DC pumping system rather than an inverter plus an ordinary motor. The controller matters more than the panels at this scale.
Pump and electrical work
Submersible installation, repair, rewinding, panel boards and changeover gear through Shahzad Pumps & Electric Works. We handle the pump end; they handle the electrical end; the two are in one building.
The dust problem
Faisalabad's dust is the thing that decides whether a farm array keeps working. Cleaning is not an optional extra here, it is a maintenance schedule, and a seller who does not mention it has not thought about your field.
Check which company is on your invoice. Shahzad Solar (Private) Limited and Shahzad Pumps & Electric Works are separate legal entities. If you contract with one, the warranties you are relying on belong to that one. We would rather say this here than have you discover it later.
Bring your pump details, not a wish list.
Pump horsepower, the depth you draw from, how many hours a day you run it, and what you currently spend a month. Four numbers, and we can tell you whether solar makes sense for your field — including when the honest answer is that it does not yet.