Group Net Metering Kerala for Multi-Home Owners 2026

Group net metering (GNM) in Kerala is for one consumer with more than one KSEB connection—for example solar on your main house and surplus units credited to a second home you own. Both premises must sit under the same distribution licensee. This is not apartment virtual net metering, where many flats share one shared plant.

What group net metering Kerala means for homeowners

Regulation 11.1 opens group net metering to every consumer or prosumer who is already eligible for net metering under Regulation 6.1. You may install the renewable plant at one premises or at more than one premises. Surplus electricity can then be wheeled to another premises of the same consumer that is also eligible for net metering, inside the same distribution licensee’s supply area.

A typical Kerala use is solar on a house with a strong roof, with surplus adjusted against a second connection you hold nearby. Both connections must be yours as that consumer, and both must sit under the same licensee such as KSEB in its area of supply.

Group net metering is not a way to sell surplus to a neighbour’s unrelated bill. The wheeled energy stays inside your own consumer relationship with the licensee, subject to the accounting rules in Chapter III.

Capacity shares cannot break the net-metering caps

Regulation 11.1(ii) says the share of capacity of the renewable plant for each premises of the consumer shall not exceed the limits in Regulation 6.1. For a domestic connection that limit is 1 kW to 20 kW of plant capacity. Labelling a share above the domestic band because another premises is in the group does not work.

Regulation 11.1(iii) says the quantum wheeled and adjusted follows Chapter III. Group net metering does not invent a special cash export tariff by itself. Units move through the net-metering settlement framework written in those regulations.

If one premises is domestic and another is also domestic, each share still respects the domestic 20 kW plant-capacity ceiling. Mixing categories only works where Regulation 6.1 already makes each connection net-metering eligible.

Plant size at each premises and the 20% storage exception

Regulation 11.2 caps the plant at any participating premises at the connected load in kW for connected-load billing, or contract demand in kVA for demand-based billing. That mirrors the usual load ceiling idea and stops a large array sitting on a small service connection without a load review.

There is one written exception. If you install a hybrid inverter with storage of at least 20% of the plant’s energy generation potential, the capacity limit for that plant can be exceeded. You must then bear the cost of augmenting the distribution system needed for connectivity.

For net-metered solar, Regulation 16.9 uses a 19% CUF when energy generation potential is reckoned for storage. Use that figure when checking whether a design truly meets the 20% storage proviso in Regulation 11.2.

How this differs from virtual net metering

Virtual net metering under Regulation 10 is built for listed groups such as flats in a multi-storeyed building or complex. That path uses a Lead Person or RESCO and, for the domestic multi-storey route, storage of not less than 20% of energy generation potential. Group net metering stays inside one consumer’s own premises.

If you already wheeled surplus to another premises under the older 2020 net-metering regulations across different tariff categories, Regulation 11.1’s first proviso lets that existing arrangement continue under GNM billing until a Regulation 2.3 condition occurs.

Apartment associations comparing options should read the virtual net metering rules first. Households that simply own two service connections should start with group net metering under Regulation 11.

Checklist before you ask for GNM on a quote

• Every participating service connection is in your name as the same consumer.
• Each connection is a net-metering-eligible category under Regulation 6.1.
• All connections lie in the same distribution licensee area.
• Each premises’ capacity share stays inside its Regulation 6.1 band.
• Plant at each premises respects connected load, or meets the 20% storage proviso with written augmentation cost.

Put both consumer numbers, both connected loads, and the proposed capacity shares on the first quote sheet. Installers and KSEB staff need that map before they can say whether Regulation 11 fits your pair of premises.

How GNM fits next to feasibility and registration

Choosing group net metering does not skip the ordinary feasibility and registration path in Regulation 17. You still need a feasibility certificate, registration within the stated windows, testing, a connectivity agreement and metering before wheeled units appear on bills.

Name every participating consumer number and the proposed capacity share for each premises in the application pack. Licensee staff cannot test a GNM design that only describes the roof with panels and stays silent about the second bill that will take the wheeled surplus.

Regulation 17.15’s timeline table still matters: feasibility is due within 15 days of a complete application, and later steps run to testing, agreement and metering. Track those dates the same way you would for a single-home net-metering plant.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources and Accuracy Note

• 01KSERC (Renewable Energy and Related Matters) Regulations, 2025
  Reg 11.1 — consumers eligible under Reg 6.1 may install under GNM; Reg 11.1(i) — excess wheeled to another premises of the same prosumer eligible for net metering within the same Distribution licensee area.
  govt source · opened 2026-09-29