The rules · effective 9 February 2026
On 9 February 2026 NEPRA's Prosumer Regulations 2026 came into force and replaced net metering in Pakistan. If you own or are buying solar, this is the single most important change to your bill since the industry started. It is also the one most installers still have not caught up with.
01 — What changed
Net metering, until 9 February 2026
Net billing, from 9 February 2026
NEPRA, Prosumer Regulations, 2026, notified as S.R.O. 251(I)/2026 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan. Regulation 14(1)(a) sets import at the applicable tariff; Regulation 14(1)(b) sets export at the national average energy purchase price; Regulation 3(2) caps capacity at the sanctioned load; Regulation 21 repeals the 2015 Net Metering Regulations with savings for existing agreements. Schedule-I of the regulations sets the ceiling at "1 kW to 1MW".
Where the "Rs 11" actually comes from. The figure widely quoted is a Power Division statement, not a line in the gazette. The gazette does not set a number; it sets a formula — the national average energy purchase price — and Regulation 14(3) allows NEPRA to revise that rate during the life of your agreement. We use Rs 11 in our tool because it is the best current estimate, and we say so rather than presenting it as a fixed price.
02 — Your side of the deal
This is the number that did not change. You buy power at your full tariff, exactly as before. Every unit your array makes while you are using power is worth the whole thing.
| Category | Rs per unit | What this means for solar |
|---|---|---|
| Home, unprotected, over 700 units | 47.20 | The best self-consumption value in the market. Size to your daytime load and never export. |
| Home, unprotected, 301–400 units | 36.46 | The common Faisalabad residential band. |
| Home, unprotected, 001–100 units | 22.44 | Low units, so a fixed array has less to displace. |
| Commercial | 39.76 | Strong value for shops that trade in daylight. |
| Industrial B2, 25–500 kW | 24.16 | Three-shift factories displace a great deal of this. |
| Agricultural | 28.90 | Tubewells only. Source is a practitioner report — check your own bill. |
FESCO's published residential and commercial tariff schedule, effective 12 February 2026. The agricultural figure could not be obtained from FESCO's own schedule and comes from a practitioner source, so read the rate off your own bill before relying on it.
03 — A worked example
A real Faisalabad shape: a home with a 7 kW sanctioned load using 400 units a month. Under the old rules this household legally installed a 10 kW array, because 1.5× was available. Every number below can be checked by you. Nothing here is hypothetical except the name.
| The arithmetic | Old rules | New rules |
|---|---|---|
| Array the household may install | 10 kW (7 × 1.5) | 7 kW (Reg 3(2)) |
| Generated in a 30-day month at 4.20 kWh per kW per day | 1,260 units | 882 units |
| Used on site | 400 units | 400 units |
| Exported | 860 units | 482 units |
| Import you pay for, at Rs 47.20 | Rs 18,880 | Rs 18,880 |
| Export credit | 860 × 47.20 = Rs 40,592 | 482 × 11 = Rs 5,302 |
| Monthly position | Rs 21,712 credit | Rs 13,578 owing |
| What February cost this household | Rs 35,290 a month | |
Notice that the array got smaller too. That is the half of this change people miss. The Rs 11 export price is the part everyone argues about; the capacity cap is the part that changes what you can physically put on a roof. A 10 kW array on a 7 kW sanctioned connection was legal in 2025 and is not legal now. If a quotation you are holding was written to the old rule, it is wrong on both counts.
Anyone whose consumption genuinely happens in daylight: shops, showrooms, offices, three-shift factories. Their self-consumption stays above 80% of generation, and the export rate barely touches them.
It also helps anyone who has not installed yet, because the bad outcome is entirely avoidable by sizing correctly. The tool on our home page will show you which side of that line you fall on before you commit to anything.
Anyone who installed before February with a large array and low daytime usage. Under the old rules the extra capacity was free money. Now it is sold at roughly a quarter of the price.
It also hurts anyone still being sold the old maths. If a quotation in 2026 shows you export cancelling your bill at full tariff, that quotation is describing a system that was legal two years ago.
Generation assumes 4.2 kWh per kW per day, the figure used throughout this site and a reasonable one for Faisalabad. The split between self-consumption and export follows a standard daytime household load curve and is our model, not a measurement of any particular house. Change the numbers yourself in the tool and the verdict changes with them.
04 — How an application actually moves
We file the paperwork. We do not decide anything. Anyone who tells you they can "arrange" approval is describing something that does not exist.
The application goes through the Pakistan Institute of Power Development and Services
at nmp.pitc.com.pk. Solar ICT is one of the parties designated
to file on a customer's behalf.
A stated minimum, not a promise. If nothing comes back in five working days, that is a legitimate thing to chase.
The licensee checks capacity, meter and technical compliance. From 250 kW a load-flow study is compulsory, carried out through the licensee or a consultant registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council.
No new application is entertained if distributed generation on that transformer already reaches 80% of its rated capacity. This is the rule that quietly blocks dense commercial areas, and it is worth checking before you order.
Seven working days each. Then the interconnection agreement, signed, with a five-year term and an Rs 1,000 per kW fee.
S.R.O. 1330(I)/2026 of 6 August 2026 states that a facility of 25 kW or below needs no NEPRA concurrence. For most homes and small shops, that is one approval fewer than there was in February.
Steps and day counts are the statutory minimums in S.R.O. 251(I)/2026. They are floors, not typical elapsed times. Real-world timelines reported in this market run two to four months and often longer, and a rejection restarts the clock. We do not promise you a date.
05 — The two-portal problem
System A
Portal: nmp.pitc.com.pk
Used for: new net billing applications, filed by Solar ICT on your behalf or by you
directly.
This is the process set out above, under the 2026 regulations. It is the one every quotation you have been shown is referring to.
System B
Portal: fesco.enc.com.pk
Used for: electricity connection number and consumer data — the part your
distribution company holds, not the part NEPRA holds.
Some customers, and some installers, submit to the wrong one. It is a common and entirely avoidable delay.
If you already have solar, this is the part most people get wrong — including some installers. The savings clause in Regulation 21(2) keeps your agreement and its term alive. It does not keep your old price. The proviso is explicit: existing distributed generation "shall be billed in accordance with the national average power purchase price till the expiry of the term of their agreement." So your export is already being valued on the same low basis as everybody else's, whether you upgraded last month or in 2019.
Two things follow. First, if someone has told you that having an old connection protects your export rate, that is not what the gazette says. Second, enlarging your system is a different question again, because the protection attaches to the capacity you already had. If your existing system works and your bill is acceptable, that is a genuinely different decision from installing for the first time. Ask before you extend.
The tool on our home page is not a sales pitch. It shows what an array would make, how much of it you would actually use, and what the February 2026 change costs. It will also tell you when you have made the array too big.