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Like many utilities serving rapidly growing urban centers in developing countries, BESCOM, Bengaluru’s utility, is struggling to supply sufficient power to meet demand. To meet demand, BESCOM is diversifying its electricity supply with increased rooftop solar PV.

Rooftop solar PV systems can help reduce the pressure to meet demand by providing electricity supply at the point of demand. A growing number of “prosumers”—energy consumers who produce their own energy at the point of consumption and export their excess to the grid—are installing rooftop solar PV systems in the city. In November 2014, BESCOM, introduced a net-metering program that allows consumers who generate electricity from solar power to transfer their surplus to the grid. As of March 2016, the program had resulted in over 5.6 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV systems. However, the rate of new connections will need to accelerate if Karnataka is to meet its solar goal of 400 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV by 2018.

Drawing on insights and suggestions from local industry experts, project developers, and customers, as well as the literature we reviewed, we offer initial recommendations for how program administrators and others can address the following six barriers currently preventing a wider scale-up of rooftop solar PV by prosumers in Bengaluru:

• Poor understanding of PV performance, cost and payback       
• Confusion on net-metering specifications 
• Uncertainty in project developer selection and interaction
• Limited reach and appeal of the net-metering program
• Limited effect of the promotional net-metering rate
• Limited institutional capacity of the program administrator