Aiming to promote rooftop solar energy across the country, the government has initiated a move to conduct a study on framing "Net Metering Policy", or "NMP". Under the proposed policy, according to official sources, users of rooftop solar power will have the option either to sell their unconsumed electricity to the government or adjust the bills of conventional electricity use through an exchange arrangement. A top official of the Power Cell, a technical wing of the Power Division, said that this means a user of a rooftop solar panel can sell his extra or unused electricity to the government when he does not consume power from his solar panel.
Experts said that the "Net Energy Metering", or "NEM", is a special billing arrangement that provides credit to customers with solar photovoltaic systems (PV) for the full retail value of the electricity their system generates. Recently the Power Cell appointed a consultant to conduct the study to determine the potentials of Net Energy Metering across the country and frame a policy as to how and in which rate the trade of electricity could take place between the government and the consumers. A consultant of the Power Cell said that actually, the aim of the study is to determine the potential of rooftop solar and outlining a policy under which a rate of buying electricity could be fixed. He said that as per terms and conditions, he will complete the job within 90 days.
The government projects to generate 3,168 MW power from renewable energy sources by 2021, as part of the national programme "Vision: 2021". Of this, officials believe, about 1000 MW electricity can easily come from the rooftops of buildings in Dhaka city. They said huge rooftops of the government office buildings, schools, garment and other factories could easily be used for rooftop solar power generation while rooftop of cold storage, textile and other mills outside the capital city could be used for the same purpose. They said once a Net Metering Policy is approved by the government, the power distribution entities like DESCO, DPDC, REB and PDB would be obliged to buy electricity from their own consumers, especially from the rooftop solar users.
If any new consumer wants to take electricity connection, under the present condition, he has to mandatorily install rooftop solar panel to generate a certain small portion of power from the rooftop plant. But due to absence of any Net Metering System or policy, many of the consumers allegedly install fake solar panels only to get connections. A top official of the Power Cell said that once there is a policy in place, the consumers will be encouraged to install genuine solar panels for their own consumption as well as to sell extra power to the government power distribution companies. Therefore, the move to frame "Net Metering Policy" is encouraging to install genuine solar panels for the power consumers across the country.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.