What Happens to Excess Solar Units in March?
Net metering banks your surplus as unit credits, not cash, all year. Here's what happens to whatever's left over when the financial year closes.
Short answer: Under net metering, any extra units your system exports beyond what you consume are credited to your account and roll forward month to month, offsetting future bills. They are not paid out as monthly cash. At the financial year-end (31 March), any surplus that's still sitting unused in your account is settled, but at a regulated rate that's well below your normal retail tariff, not encashed at the rate you'd pay for grid electricity. This is a standard feature of how Indian net metering is structured, not something specific to a bad deal you got.
Why people expect a cash payout, and why that's not how it works
It's an easy assumption: if your panels generate more than you use, surely the DISCOM pays you for the difference, the way some countries' feed-in tariff schemes work. Indian net metering, including PuVVNL's implementation, isn't structured that way for residential rooftop. Surplus generation is credited in units (kWh), and those credited units are used to offset your energy charge in future billing cycles. It functions like a running balance, not a monthly payment.
The March 31 settlement
Because credits roll forward within a financial year, most households with a reasonably sized system never see a large unused balance, it gets absorbed into monthly bills as you go. But if your system consistently generates more than you consume, for instance in months when you travel or use less power, an unadjusted surplus can accumulate. At the financial year-end, that leftover surplus is settled under the applicable state regulation, typically at a rate significantly lower than your normal domestic tariff, reflecting the wholesale-level value of the power rather than the retail rate you'd otherwise pay. The exact settlement mechanism and rate are set by UPERC regulation and can be revised, so treat any specific rate you're quoted elsewhere as something to verify at the time, not a fixed number.
What this means for sizing your system
This is one of the practical reasons we don't recommend oversizing a residential system well beyond your actual consumption pattern, "extra" units at financial year-end are worth meaningfully less than units that directly offset your own bill each month. A system sized close to your real usage, rather than maximised for the biggest possible export, typically gives you a better return. Our system sizing guide covers how we size for your actual consumption rather than your maximum roof capacity.
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