Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) had proposed to levy wheeling charges on rooftop energy consumption as it is required to keep the entire generation, transmission and distribution capacity available for rooftop consumers, even if they consume power from the rooftop system plus the burden of under-recovery does not get passed on to other consumers.
However Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has rejected this proposal.
In its petition, MSEDCL had submitted that it has been allowing net metering in its area of supply to eligible consumers as per the MERC (Net Metering for Roof-top Systems) Regulations 2015 due to which rooftop net metering system brings these consumers from subsidizing to subsidized category which adversely impacts the cross-subsidy balance in tariff.
As a result, the financial impact gets passed on to common consumers who cannot afford such rooftop systems. On the other hand, gross metering systems will not have impact on the low-end consumer tariffs.
MERC observed that the issue is specifically linked to the provisions stipulated under the MERC (Net-Metering for Solar-Rooftop Photo Voltaic System) Regulations, 2015 and that entails modification and review of net metering framework through due regulatory consultation process so it rejected the presented proposal.
Reference- Mercom India, TOI