How Solar power can help you save on your electricity bills

In continuation from our previous post on How to read your Electricity bills in Karnataka for a residential connection, here we look at how installing a solar roof top can reduce your electricity bills and help you gain long term financial savings.

Electricity tariffs in Karnataka are on the rise every year. A look at the increase in the tariffs in the past 5 years:

Year	Tariff (above first 200 units –highest slab)
2013	5.50
2014	5.85
2015	6.25
2016	6.40
2017	6.90

              (See full Tariff Here)

The electricity tariff has increased by 25% overall from 2013 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% every year. However, generation of electricity from Solar is fixed at the current market rate of Rs 5.89 which is already lesser than the higher slabs today.

A Typical 3BHK house will consume an average of 300 – 400 units per month, of which anything above the first 200 units falls under the highest slab of Rs 6.90.

Let us take an example of a residential house with a sanctioned load of 3 kW, whose electricity bill is Rs 2038 for a particular month.

As you observe above, a mere consumption of 125 units from the highest slab amounts to 42% of your bill.

Significant savings can be achieved by installing a grid connected solar plant on net metering policy. A Net metering scheme allows users to offset the electricity units drawn from the grid by transferring surplus solar power to the grid. At the end of every month the net electricity units consumed from the grid becomes zero or negligible.

Let us look at the different ways how we can reduce our electricity bills:

Solar plant Size	Units Generated (kWh)	Cost of System (Lakhs)	Bill before Solar (Rs)	Bill after Solar (Rs)	Monthly Solar Earnings (Rs)	Monthly Total Savings (Rs)
2 kW	270	2	2038	322	0	1766
3 kW	405	3	2038	0	566	2604
4 kW	540	4	2038	0	1522	3560
5 kW	675	4.5	2038	0	2478	4516

As observed above, it is ideal to install a 3kW system or more. The total monthly savings is the sum of savings in the electricity bill and earnings from excess generation of electricity from Solar.

Installing a solar rooftop power plant is going to help you achieve significant long term financial savings.

You never have to pay your electricity bill for the next 25 years!