Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has notified the KSERC (Renewable Energy and Related Matters) Regulations, 2025, introducing major changes to address concerns raised by consumers and prosumers. The new regulations will come into effect on November 6, 2025, and remain valid until March 31, 2030. The new billing systems prescribed under the regulations will be implemented from January 1, 2026, while consumers or prosumers who receive feasibility approval by November 5, 2025, will also be covered under the new framework, reports The Hindu.
According to the revised norms, the Net Metering System (NMS) will now be allowed for domestic consumers up to 20 kilowatts (kW), industrial consumers up to 500 kW, and agricultural consumers up to 3,000 kW. For multi-storied domestic apartments, NMS will be applicable up to 500 kW for common service connections. This marks a major relaxation compared to the earlier draft regulations, which had proposed limiting net metering to just 3 kW—a move that drew strong criticism from prosumers across the state.
The Commission has also revised its earlier proposal on grid support charges, which had been one of the main points of contention. Under the final regulations, these charges will now be collected only for the energy drawn from the grid during non-solar hours, and only up to the amount of energy that has been adjusted against the prosumer’s banked energy. For instance, if a prosumer draws 400 units from the grid during non-solar hours but has 300 units of banked energy, the grid support charge will apply only to those 300 units.
Prosumers with renewable energy systems up to and including 10 kW have been exempted from paying grid support charges altogether. For systems above this limit, the charges will be levied monthly at a rate of 50 paise per unit for the first 300 units and ₹1 per unit for any additional units. All existing and new agricultural consumers with renewable energy systems will remain fully exempted from the payment of grid support charges.
The final version of the regulations also incorporates provisions for emerging technologies in the renewable energy sector, such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Virtual Net Metering (VNM), and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs).
The earlier draft had faced significant criticism for its proposal to impose a flat ₹1 per unit grid support charge for every unit of renewable energy exported to the grid and for restricting the net metering limit. Prosumers and renewable energy advocates argued that such measures would discourage small-scale solar adoption and affect investment in rooftop solar projects.
By easing the restrictions and introducing a more balanced framework for billing and grid charges, the KSERC aims to promote renewable energy while maintaining the stability and sustainability of the state’s power grid.
