The government is amending the net metering guideline for attracting educational institutions and hospitals to generate solar electricity on the rooftops and sell the unconsumed electricity to the power distribution companies, sources said.
They said a draft of the revised Net Metering Guideline - 2018 is now awaiting opinion from the stakeholders to make it further friendly to customers.
Under the present guideline, residential, commercial and industrial customers of the distribution companies can generate solar electricity at their rooftops and sell or store their unconsumed electricity to the distribution entities.
But the government recently decided that rooftops of school buildings, colleges, universities, religious centres, and charitable organisations can be used for solar power generation.
In that case, the net metering system can encourage the building owners to install solar system on the rooftops if they can sell or store their unconsumed electricity to the grid lines.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his budget speech said there is a target to generate 10 per cent of the total electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
"In order to promote electricity generation at the rooftops of private buildings using solar home system, a "Net Metering Guideline" has been prepared. Steps have been taken to install solar system panels at the rooftops of all educational institutions," he said.
Member of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) Siddique Zobair told the FE that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed for taking steps to set up solar system on rooftops of all educational institutions.
"We are amending the guideline to include the educational institutions, religious centres, and charitable organisations as the customer," he said.
Bangladesh has over 150,000 primary schools, more than 25,000 secondary schools and hundreds of colleges and universities.
Mr. Zobair said if those can be brought under the net metering system, the electricity generation from renewable sources will increase manifold.
He said mainly the privates sector people will invest in the school net metering systems. "Low cost funding under several schemes is also available," he said.
Since the formulation of the net metering guideline in July 2018, the customers under various power distribution companies are generating solar power on the rooftops of their buildings. Until February this year, some 179 producers are generating more than 4.25 MW of solar power on the rooftops under net metering system.
Until now, the rooftops of only the commercial and industrial buildings are being used for solar power generation. However, steps are underway to allow residential buildings to generate solar power.
President of Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association Dipal C Barua told the FE that the solar scheme on school rooftops is an innovative idea and it will increase power generation significantly.
He said the net metering system can help generate a large volume of electricity in Bangladesh if all the industrial buildings can be included in the solar scheme.
The country's electricity generation from renewables reached 585.12 megawatt, including 351.14 MW coming from solar.
Some 5.5 million Solar Home Systems (SHSs) are lighting the rural villages, offsetting the need for kerosene lamp which emits carbon dioxide causing greenhouse effect.
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