FAQ's

General questions

Solar panels are comprised of 60–96 solar cells that are joined together. These cells convert sunlight into usable electricity for your home. The amount of electricity produced by the solar panels depends on how much sunlight they receive each day.

The number of panels it recommends is tailored to your needs and is based on the following factors:

  • Your energy usage in kilowatt hours
  • The size of your home
  • The climate conditions in your area
  • Your utility’s feed-in laws.

One of the best things about solar panels is that they are extremely durable. Odds are, you won't need any solar maintenance at all once they've been installed. You may have to clean your panels if debris starts to collect or if it snows; but other than that, you won't have to do much of anything to keep your solar panels functioning for years to come.

The panels will produce electricity but it will be very limited -- depending on how much light can get through the cloud layers. Homeowners with solar power will still be able to use traditional electricity from their local provider just as they did before the solar equipment was installed.

The amount of electricity produced will vary with the seasons as the angle of the sun changes from summer to winter. In the winter, the sun angle is low in the southern sky so the amount of sunlight reaching the panels is less. In the summer, the sun angle is high so the panels produce more electricity.

As a general solar industry rule of thumb, solar panels last about 25-30 years. However, this doesn't mean that they stop producing electricity after 25 years – it just means that energy production has declined by 80% what manufacturers consider to be a significant amount.

No the Solar panel will degrade 1% every passing year and it will continue even after 25 years.

Space requirements range from 120 to 150 sq. feet per kW of solar PV installed depending whether it’s a rooftop or ground mounted and the tilt angle of the solar PV modules.

Net Metering

Net-Metering concept is a process that allows customers to produce their own Solar power and share their surplus electricity with the national grid. The monthly bill is then netted off in proportional to the amount of energy sold to the distribution company. The net metering procedure is used globally to promote the use of distributed generation.

On 1st September 2015, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority adopted regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act 1997 section 7(1), approving the Rules & Regulations enabling the Net-Metering Program for Renewable Energy. Thus, the net-metering rules came into effect in Pakistan on September 01, 2015

Customer will receive monthly net export/import bill indicating either net export to the grid or net import from the grid in case of net import bill, the DG will be billed for net kWh in accordance with the applicable tariff.

In this case the net kWh will be credited against DG’s next billing cycle for consumption

All residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural consumers having a 3-phase connection at 400V – 11 kV are eligible.

  • Same name in Application forms and on DISCO’s bill.

  • The consumer should initiate the change of three phase meter application, and submit the net metering application at the facilitation center after the meter has been changed.

    While applying for net metering, both the applicant name in the forms and the name on the DISCO’s bill should be same. The consumer should initiate the Change of Name process, and submit the net metering application at the facilitation center after the billing name is updated.

    The complete process takes a maximum of 72 days or even more depending upon all the regularization and process requirements of respective DISCO

    BEL can assist you with all the modalities of your net metering application including the preparation of all relevant documentation and liaising with your DISCO. We can even help you get a three phase meter if you don’t already have one, which will allow you to apply for Net Metering.