Design · sizing · storage

Sizing a solar system changed in February. Most quotes did not.

Under net metering you were rewarded for building the biggest array you could get approved. Under net billing you are not — exported power earns about a quarter of what you pay for imported power. The correct answer is now the smallest system that covers the load you actually run during the day, plus storage if you need the rest of the day covered.

Try the solar-day tool Read the rules first

01 — The ceiling that catches people

Your array cannot be bigger than your sanctioned load.

Until 9 February 2026

Array could be1.5× sanctioned load
Sanctioned load 5 kW7.5 kW array allowed
Surplus energy was worthyour full tariff

Now

Array can be1.0× sanctioned load
Sanctioned load 5 kW5 kW array maximum
Surplus energy is worthabout Rs 11

NEPRA Prosumer Regulations 2026, S.R.O. 251(I)/2026, Regulation 3(2), read directly from the gazette: the capacity of a proposed facility "shall not exceed the sanctioned load of the applicant's premises."

On the Rs 11: Regulation 14(1)(b) sets export at the national average energy purchase price — a formula, not a number. The figure is a Power Division statement, and Regulation 14(3) lets NEPRA revise it during your agreement. See the full explanation.

If a quote you are holding is built on 1.5×, it was written before February and it is wrong. Some installers are still working from the old rule. Ask any of us for the regulation number and check it — Regulation 3(2), four lines long.

02 — Four kinds of system

What we build, and what each one is actually for.

3–25 kW

Homes and small shops

This is the bulk of Faisalabad. FESCO's own register shows 64% of the city's net-metered connections are 5 kW or under, and 82% are 10 kW or under.

What it is for: displacing the units you use between roughly 8am and 5pm, at the full tariff. Everything outside that window is where batteries come in.

What we check first: your sanctioned load, your roof orientation and shading, and how much of your consumption actually happens in daylight. A lot of homes use more at night than people assume, and for those the honest answer is often a smaller array plus a small battery, or no solar at all.

Since 6 August 2026 a system of 25 kW or below no longer needs NEPRA concurrence — your distribution company just has to approve it. One fewer gate between you and a working system.

10–100 kW

Shops, offices and showrooms

These are the winners under the new rules. A shop that is lit, cooled and open from 9am to 9pm uses a large share of its power in the sun. Every unit the array makes is a unit it would otherwise have bought at Rs 39.76.

What it is for: carrying your air conditioning, lighting, refrigeration and machinery through the trading day for free.

What we check first: the load profile by hour, not the monthly total. Shops on generators are usually the best candidates in the city, because they can tell us exactly what the generator was doing and when.

One caveat: if you are currently on a protected residential tariff, ask your DISCO in writing how your tariff category is assessed once you are generating your own power. It can be worth more than the solar.

100–250 kW

Factories, mills and institutions

Faisalabad runs on textile. Its power looms, dyeing and finishing units are heavy, three-shift, process-heat loads — and dyeing in particular cannot be interrupted mid-batch without losing the lot.

What it is for: displacing daytime process load, and, with storage, keeping the line running through the evening peak when scheduled load shedding returns.

The rules are different here. At 250 kW and above a load-flow study is now compulsory, carried out through the licensee or a consultant registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council. And no new application will be entertained if distributed generation on that transformer already reaches 80% of its rated capacity.

This is the top of the 250 kW range on our AEDB C-3 certificate. Our certificate covers facilities up to 250 kW.

Batteries

Storage and backup

Two things happened at once. Net billing started paying far less for exported power, and the Power Division reintroduced scheduled load shedding in April 2026 — around 2.5 hours a day, 5pm to 1am. Battery imports into Pakistan are up about 220% year on year.

What a battery is actually for now: moving your own generated energy past the evening peak instead of selling it at Rs 11. That is the single most valuable thing a battery does under the current rules.

What we check first: how many hours a day you actually need covered, and what happens during a load-shedding window. A 5 kWh pack and a 20 kWh pack solve very different problems and cost very different amounts.

For tubewells and homes in the villages around Faisalabad, storage and pumping interact — see the farms page.

03 — How we work

From first call to switch-on.

Six steps. The one most installers skip is the first one.

Bring three bills, not a quote request

We need your actual consumption, your FESCO tariff category and your sanctioned load. A WhatsApp message asking what it will cost cannot be answered honestly by anyone, and it is how this market got into its current state.

We come and look

Roof, structure, shading, cable route, meter position, and how much load runs in the daytime. If the roof cannot carry the array safely, we will say so rather than specify reinforcement and hope.

A written, itemised quote, against the current rules

Every component named by manufacturer and model. Sizing justified against your daytime load, not against your roof area. If we think a smaller system is right, the quote will say so and the arithmetic will be on it.

You decide — and take our checklist with you

You are free to compare. If another quote is better, take it. We would rather lose a customer to a better system than win one we sized wrong. The checklist is here.

Payment: 30 / 40 / 30

Thirty per cent against an itemised quote and an NTN invoice, forty on delivery of equipment, thirty after commissioning and handover. The last third is released only when the system has been shown to you working.

Paperwork, then commissioning, then warranty cards

We prepare and file the net billing application through PITC's portal. Your distributor company decides, not us, and we will not promise you a date. On commissioning you get warranty cards for every component, registered, in your name.

04 — Money

What things cost, so you can tell a real quote from an invented one.

Independent of us, for your own sanity check. Module prices rose about 25% year on year, and the 18% GST increase on solar imports that was proposed was dropped — but equipment remains expensive and quotes vary a lot.

Indicative market ranges published by Pakistani solar practitioners in 2026 — not our prices, and not an offer
System	Typical quoted range	What should move it up
5 kW residential	Rs 750,000–900,000	Panel brand, inverter brand, roof structure, distance from the meter
10 kW residential or small commercial	Rs 1,300,000–1,600,000	As above, plus commercial-grade inverters and three-phase work
15 kW commercial	Rs 2,000,000–2,400,000	Voltage level, switchgear, cable lengths, structural reinforcement
Panel module price	Rs 42–47 per watt	Brand, efficiency grade, and whether the seller will actually name it

Practitioner-reported ranges for 2026, cross-checked against FESCO's official tariff for the bill arithmetic rather than against solar comparison sites, which frequently contradict each other. Treat these as a sanity check on the shape of a quote, not as an offer — and note that a system priced per watt is being sold to you as a product rather than as a solution to your bill.

Why we do not publish a price list. A system for a 6 kW connection with a shaded south-west roof and a 40-metre cable run is not a system for a 6 kW connection with a clear flat roof. A price list would be a way of avoiding a site visit.

Why the range is so wide. Roughly a third of the cost of a rooftop system is not the panels. It is the structure, the cable, the switchgear, the distance to the meter, and the labour to get up there safely. Quotes that are far below the others are usually cheaper on exactly those.

Ask every quote the same three questions. Which panel model, which inverter model, and what happens if the system underperforms. The three answers together tell you more than the total does.

Send us three bills and we will tell you the size.

Not a quote straight away — a size, with the reasoning, and a straight answer if the honest one is that you need less than you were expecting, or not yet.

Send us your bills Farms & tubewells