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The net metering application, end to end

Eight stages sit between a signed order and an energised net meter. Where each one stalls, what the DISCOM is actually checking, and what to tell the customer.

GridZero5 min read

Net metering application process for rooftop solar in India

Customers think the hard part is the roof. Anyone who has run an EPC knows the hard part is the file.

The sequence below is the national shape of the process. Every DISCOM decorates it differently, and the decorations are where the weeks go, but the stages are the same almost everywhere.

The eight stages

1. Registration. For a residential job under PM Surya Ghar, the customer registers on the national portal with their consumer number and DISCOM, and selects a vendor from those empanelled in that territory. If you are not on that list for that DISCOM, the process stops here. That problem is covered in getting empanelled in a new DISCOM.

2. Feasibility. The DISCOM checks whether the connection can host the proposed system: sanctioned load, phase, the distribution transformer's existing solar loading, and sometimes the condition of the service line. This is the first place applications get rejected, and the rejection reason is often not explained.

3. Sanction. Approval to proceed, usually with the approved capacity stated. Read it. The sanctioned capacity is what the inspection will check against, not what you quoted.

4. Installation. Your part, and the only stage you fully control.

5. Installation details and documents. Uploaded to the portal: module and inverter details, serial numbers, photographs, the vendor-consumer agreement, and the invoice.

6. Inspection. A DISCOM engineer visits. Earthing, isolation, labelling, the AC disconnect, the structure and the module count against the sanction. What they check varies, but earthing is checked everywhere.

7. Net meter installation. The bidirectional meter is fitted and sealed, sometimes with a separate generation meter alongside. Meter availability is the single most common cause of an unexplained multi-week gap.

8. Commissioning certificate. The document that ends the process and, for subsidised residential jobs, triggers the subsidy claim.

Where the weeks actually go

Not evenly. In most territories the time distribution looks like this:

  • Feasibility to sanction: days to weeks, depending on how loaded the local transformer is and how busy the office is.
  • Installation: days. This is the part your customer thinks is the whole project.
  • Inspection scheduling: the largest single variable. In a busy district this alone can be longer than everything before it.
  • Meter fitting: constrained by meter stock, not by effort.

Which is why a commissioning promise built on installation time is a promise you will break. Quote from experience in that specific DISCOM, and if you have not worked there before, ask the utility what their current cycle is and believe the longer number.

The four things that stall a file

The bill is not in the applicant's name. A parent, a previous owner, a deceased relative. It is the most common single blocker and it cannot be fixed in the week the customer wants to install.

The system exceeds sanctioned load. Many DISCOMs will not sanction a system larger than the sanctioned load, so the customer needs a load enhancement first, with its own fee and timeline. Catch it from the bill, as described in sizing a system from the customer's electricity bill.

Transformer capacity is full. Several states cap the total rooftop solar allowed on one distribution transformer. If the local DT has reached that limit, no amount of paperwork helps until the DISCOM upgrades it. This is a genuine no, and the honest answer is to tell the customer early.

Documents that do not match each other. The capacity on the application, the capacity on the invoice, the modules actually installed and the serial numbers uploaded all have to agree. They frequently do not, usually because someone substituted a module late.

What to tell the customer, and when

Three moments matter.

At the site visit, tell them the process has DISCOM stages you do not control, and give a range rather than a date. Ranges survive contact with reality; dates do not.

At sanction, tell them what was approved and whether it matches what they bought. If the DISCOM sanctioned 4 kW against a 5 kW proposal, that conversation happens now, not at inspection.

After inspection, tell them the remaining step is the meter and that its timing sits with the utility. Customers accept waiting far better when they know what is being waited for.

Why this is worth systematising

The EPCs that grow are not the ones with a better closing technique. They are the ones whose files do not come back.

A rejected application costs you a fortnight, a second site visit, and a customer who now doubts you. A file that is complete the first time costs you a checklist. Where the wider approval environment is heading, including the narrowing of net metering itself, is covered in net metering is being rewritten.

The short version

  • Eight stages: registration, feasibility, sanction, installation, document upload, inspection, net meter, commissioning certificate.
  • Inspection scheduling and meter availability consume the most time, and neither is under your control.
  • The four classic blockers: the bill is in the wrong name, the system exceeds sanctioned load, the distribution transformer is full, and documents that disagree with each other.
  • Read the sanction. It states the capacity the inspection will check.
  • Quote a range from experience in that DISCOM, not a date from your installation time.

Sources

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