Rooftop solar in Bangladesh: The missing link in domestic billing

Bangladesh needs more green electricity while conserving foreign exchange and land. Rooftop solar can help by generating electricity where it is consumed, but the current billing framework leaves a significant gap for apartment buildings with multiple meters.

The Net Metering Guideline–2025 is a welcome development, yet it does not clearly address how the financial benefit of rooftop solar should be allocated when a building owner finances the system but most of the electricity is consumed by residents through separate meters.

Unless this gap is addressed, building owners may have little incentive to invest in larger, better-maintained rooftop solar systems.

How the present system works

Under net metering, rooftop solar first supplies electricity to the consumer's premises. When demand exceeds solar generation, the premises draws the shortfall from the grid. When generation exceeds on-site consumption, the surplus is exported to the grid through a bidirectional meter that records imports and exports.

This model works relatively simply for a single home, where the person who pays for the solar system also receives the benefit of the electricity it generates. In a multi-storey apartment building, however, the investor and consumers may be different.

One roof, multiple meters

An apartment building may have one rooftop but multiple electricity meters. The building owner may finance the rooftop solar system, while residents receive much of the electricity it generates through their individual meters.

Consider a building where the solar system generates 1,400 units in a month. If 1,304 units are consumed on site and only 96 units are exported to the grid, the bidirectional meter records the 96 exported units.

The exported 96 units can be credited under the net metering arrangement, but the system does not necessarily create a corresponding credit for the 1,304 units consumed within the building for the person who financed the solar installation.

This creates a gap between the measurement of solar generation and the allocation of its financial benefit.

Solar electricity can reduce the building's overall reliance on grid electricity, but the financial benefit may not accrue directly to the person who financed the system. The rules therefore need a system for measuring that electricity and fairly allocating its value among the relevant parties. Such a mechanism would also benefit the government by encouraging greater investment in rooftop solar without requiring additional land.

A policy paradox

The utility can use inverter readings to track solar generation, but billing is based on the meter. This creates a problem in apartment buildings: how should the owner be credited for solar power used by residents through their separate meters? 

The framework therefore needs a mechanism that can measure solar generation and allocate the associated financial benefit transparently when generation, consumption and investment do not sit behind the same meter.

Why industry is different

A solar system at a factory is typically used to power the business itself. Electricity generated by the system therefore reduces the factory's need to purchase electricity from the grid, allowing the investor to realise the savings through the same electricity account.

An apartment building presents a different arrangement. The building owner may bear the cost of the rooftop solar system, while the electricity generated is consumed by residents whose apartments have separate meters.

The solar electricity can reduce the building's overall reliance on grid electricity, but the financial benefit may not accrue directly to the person who financed the system.

The rules therefore need a system for measuring that electricity and fairly allocating its value among the relevant parties. Such a mechanism would also benefit the government by encouraging greater investment in rooftop solar without requiring additional land.

Three policy options

The policy issue is not simply whether rooftop solar should be encouraged, but how the value of verified generation should be allocated when generation, consumption and investment do not sit behind the same meter.

A workable solution should do two things: reliably measure total solar generation and allocate its financial value to the party that financed or jointly owns the system.

Certify a solar generation meter

The distribution utility could install or approve a separate meter to record total rooftop solar generation, while the existing bidirectional meter continues to record grid imports and exports.

Together, the meters would show how much electricity was generated, consumed on site and exported to the grid.

Authenticate inverter readings

As an alternative to a separate generation meter, the utility could approve eligible inverters and verify their installation and readings. Their recorded generation could then be accepted for billing, subject to regular checks.

This would make use of data that the system already produces while avoiding the need for an additional generation meter in every building.

Introduce building-level accounting

A building-level solar account could assign a financial value to verified solar electricity consumed on site.

If the building owner financed the system, the credit could go to the owner's designated account. If apartment owners jointly financed the system, the credit could be distributed according to their agreed shares.

The mechanism should also prevent double counting. Electricity credited as an export should not also be credited as on-site consumption.

The rules should specify who is eligible to claim the credit, how ownership or cost-sharing is documented, and how disputes among building owners, apartment owners and tenants are resolved.

These safeguards would allow the system to address the measurement gap without creating new billing disputes.

From installing solar to producing solar

This reform could change the incentive structure for rooftop solar.

If solar panels are installed mainly because regulations require them, Bangladesh may achieve more installations without necessarily achieving maximum generation. A building owner may have little incentive to invest in a larger system, better equipment or proper maintenance if most additional production provides little financial return.

The policy emphasis should therefore move from installing solar panels to producing solar electricity.

If every properly verified unit has a transparent economic value, owners will have a stronger incentive to use available rooftop space, invest in better systems and maintain them properly.

Thousands of residential buildings could gradually become small distributed power plants financed largely through private investment.

Make rooftop solar work for apartments

Bangladesh's rooftop solar goals depend on people being willing to invest. In apartment buildings, that means recognising the value of solar electricity used by residents even when they have separate meters.

The solution is straightforward in principle: measure the electricity, credit it fairly and prevent double counting.

With clear billing rules, more residential rooftops can contribute to Bangladesh's electricity supply while encouraging private investment in renewable energy.

Md Nazrul Islam is a former executive chairman of BEPZA, a retired major general of the Bangladesh Army, and a PhD researcher on technology, workforce transformation and industrial competitiveness.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.