Pakistan PM orders review of new solar regulations to protect existing consumers

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken swift action in response to recent changes in the country’s solar energy regulations, directing authorities to safeguard the interests of existing solar power users.

Chairing a high-level meeting on Wednesday, Sharif instructed the Power Division to file a review petition with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to ensure that current solar net-metering contracts are fully protected. He stressed that all necessary measures must be taken to uphold the rights of consumers already participating in the program.

The prime minister also called for a broader strategy to prevent the financial impact of the reforms on the country’s wider electricity consumer base, which includes more than 37 million households and businesses reliant on the national grid.

Officials noted that approximately 466,000 solar consumers could be affected under the new framework.

The meeting, held in Islamabad, was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar; Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Khan Cheema, Attaullah Tarar, Ali Pervaiz Malik, and Sardar Owais Khan Leghari; Minister of State Bilal Azhar Kayani; Adviser on Privatization Muhammad Ali; and other senior officials.

The government’s intervention follows NEPRA’s overhaul of Pakistan’s rooftop solar policy, announced earlier this week. The regulator formally ended the long-standing net-metering system, replacing it with a net-billing framework under the NEPRA (Prosumer) Regulations, 2026.

Under the new rules, power distribution companies will purchase surplus electricity from solar generators at the national average energy purchase price while selling electricity back to them at standard consumer tariffs. This effectively ends the one-to-one unit exchange mechanism that had been in place for nearly a decade, fundamentally altering the economics of residential and commercial solar generation.