LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Solar Association (PSA) Muhammad Farhan has condemned drastic increase in Net Metering License Processing (NMLP) fee by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), terming it against the vision of the prime minister.

He said Nepra has issued SRO 1175 whereby the fees of processing Net Metering Application has been increased for all slabs.

Accordingly, the new fees will reach up to Rs 20,000 per application for the residential customers with solar systems up to 20kW compared to free of cost as per Net Metering Regulations 2015. Similarly, the new fee will be around Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 compared to the previous cost of Rs 1000 per application for small projects for commercial/industrial customers of a project size of 100kW and the fee could reach up to Rs 1 million, compared to the previously notified fee of Rs 5,000; an increase of about 200 times for larger projects of size up to 1MW.

He said the solar industry is actively playing a role in the realization of the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan that by 2030, 60 percent of all energy produced in the country will be "clean" and through renewable resources. Such an increase goes directly against this vision and will instead discourage consumers from investing in solar energy. We want to work with Nepra to understand the justification behind this increase and how we can encourage the adoption of solar and other clean energy sources, he added.

He said the Association has approached to Nepra through multiple letters, however, so far no response has been received from Nepra and the PSA has now requested Nepra officials to provide time for a meeting to discuss the SRO 1175 further.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020