Amid witnessing Pakistan’s record-breaking rooftop solar movement facing a critical turning point, stakeholders and policy experts warned that the proposed Prosumer Regulations 2025 risk dismantling a decade of citizen-led energy progress.
Convened by the Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition (PREC) and the Alliance for Climate Justice and Clean Energy (ACJCE) on redefining the prosumer–grid relationship and analysis of draft Prosumer Regulations 2025, the participants cautioned during the consultative dialogue in Islamabad that a shift from net metering to net billing could destabilize the power sector by pushing consumers towards total grid defection.
Member of National Assembly Dr Nafisa Shah stated that consumers were bearing the brunt of policy failures while simply trying to secure their basic right to electricity. She said that the next phase of this revolution would be a battery rush, and we must safeguard those who rely on solar. Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy underlined that this regulation contradicts ARE 2019, NDC 3.0, and the rights of solar consumers. “It risks disincentivizing renewable energy adoption in a climate-affected nation,” she added.
On the occasion, the experts briefed the forum that over the past decade, the citizens have independently imported over 51.5 GW of solar capacity. This organic growth, fueled by soaring electricity prices and grid unreliability, turned ordinary consumers into prosumers rather active contributors who reduce peak demand and advance the clean energy transition without requiring public financing. The new draft regulations, however, propose replacing the 2015 net metering framework with a net billing system that compensates exported solar electricity at significantly lower rates, they said.
They also said that the move penalizes the very citizens who stepped in to solve the country’s energy shortfalls. NEPRA Director General for Licensing Imtiaz Baloch clarified that this was still a proposal under consideration, not a policy change. He pointed towards legacy system constraints, cautioning that they should be addressed too with a forward-looking approach.
Renewable First CEO Zeeshan Ashfaq said the propensity of control was the root cause of power sector failures as limiting technological proliferation through administrative measures was impossible. He said that the choice before the citizens was simple: penalize the consumer or facilitate them. Dr Khalid Waleed, Energy Economy Expert at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, noted that the 2015 policy was celebrated globally, yet the 2025 draft resorts to short-term solutions rather than a long-term integration strategy.
Instead of abrupt shutdowns, he proposed that young coal plants like Sahiwal should be repurposed into ancillary assets to provide grid stabilization services or converted into Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) using sodium-ion technology. Renewable First Manager for Data and Analytics Rabia Babar said that grid electricity sales have declined for three consecutive years despite a rising number of consumers, signaling that citizens were already moving away from grid dependence.
Former Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) managing director Shah Jahan Mirza acknowledged that while the government may not intend to curb solar, any transition from the 2015 rules should have been gradual and phased. The Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition is a dynamic group of allied organizations and experts united by a singular mission of accelerating the growth of renewable energy in Pakistan. The Alliance for Climate Justice and Clean Energy mobilizes communities affected by climate change so that they can have their grievances and problems heard and addressed in a just, equitable and sustainable manner.
