India’s Net-Metering Boom Leaves Home Batteries Behind

India’s rooftop solar sector has undergone a rapid transformation. Driven by the government’s PM Surya Ghar subsidy scheme, installed capacity tripled from 2024 levels to reach 30.7 GW by July 2026, according to analytics firm Ember — nearly 19 percent of the country’s total 165 GW solar fleet.

Yet for the more than five million households now hosting panels, the existing net-metering framework leaves little financial reason to invest in a home battery. Under current rules, electricity exported to the grid at midday is credited one-for-one against power drawn during the evening peak. The national grid, in effect, serves as a costless virtual storage system — removing the economic case for dedicated batteries at the household level.

The arrangement shifts the financial strain onto distribution companies, which must credit cheap midday exports against electricity they procure at much higher peak-hour prices.

Ember modelled a typical 3 kW installation for a household consuming 350 kWh per month: after a 78,000-rupee subsidy the system costs 87,000 rupees, with the outlay recovered in roughly 3.3 years.

Policy changes could alter that calculus. A 50 percent battery subsidy would bring the payback period down to 6.3 years; restricting access to banked credits during the 18:00–22:00 peak and adding a 20 percent surcharge would shorten it further, to 5.7 years. Beyond individual economics, equipping just half of the programme’s ten million target rooftops with storage could deliver 15 to 25 GWh of system-level flexibility. Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are already exploring combined solar-and-storage schemes, and regulators have floated the idea that distribution companies could oblige a rooftop installation to come with two hours of storage.

Source: PV Magazine