Andhra Pradesh raises the solar limit on ordinary home connections to 5 kW
The central subsidy does not grow with the system: the extra capacity costs a household about Rs 90,000 at the government's own benchmark price.
Some households in the east of Andhra Pradesh had solar panels on the roof rated at 5 kW and no approval to run them under net metering, the arrangement that credits a household for the power its roof sends back to the grid.
Their power company agreed that the rule was at fault. It wrote to the state regulator, and two days later the regulator lifted the limit that had blocked them.
The contradiction sat inside the regulator's own rulebook, and the regulator said so. Andhra Pradesh's tariff schedule allows a single-phase connection, the ordinary domestic kind, for a load of up to 5 kW: that is the most power a connection is approved to draw at once.
The rooftop solar rules the same commission wrote in 2023 capped solar on those connections at 3 kW. A household could be approved to draw 5 kW and not to generate it.
The power company made the case
The Eastern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh, which bills 11 districts in the state's east, wrote to the commission on 3 August 2026. It said the cap had produced practical difficulties and consumer complaints, particularly under PM Surya Ghar, the central subsidy scheme for household rooftop solar.
It also said consumers approved for single-phase loads up to 5 kW had already installed or planned systems of that size. The order came on 5 August, and went to all three of the state's power companies.
The rulebook still reads 3 kW
The fix came through a clause of the 2023 regulation headed Removal of Difficulty. The commission granted an exemption from the capping clause and left that clause's words as they were, so the rulebook still says 3 kW while the order permits 5 kW. The relaxation took effect on the day it was issued.
An exemption is quicker than an amendment, which needs a draft, a comment period and a notification in the state gazette. It also means a household's permission now sits in an order, while the regulation itself has not changed.
The subsidy stops where the old cap was
Permission to install 5 kW brings no more central money with it. The ministry's operational guidelines for PM Surya Ghar pay a household Rs 78,000 for a 3 kW system. Above that size the guidelines' table reads "No additional CFA", the scheme's shorthand for central assistance.
A household moving from 3 kW to 5 kW (our arithmetic): the guidelines price the first two kilowatts at Rs 50,000 each and every kilowatt after them at Rs 45,000. That puts 3 kW at about Rs 1.45 lakh and 5 kW at about Rs 2.35 lakh. Assistance is Rs 78,000 either way, so the larger system asks about Rs 90,000 more of the household's own money.
The company that asked is the busiest
The eastern company added 51,583 rooftop systems in 2025-26, its best year so far, and had 88,561 rooftop customers connected at the end of June 2026, on figures its chairman and managing director, Prudhvitej Immadi, gave The Hans India in July.
The household buys the panels, owns them and pays the electrician. The size it may install came from a clause it never read, and changed when its power company wrote to the commission in Kurnool.
The clause is still due to be rewritten. The commission published a revised draft amendment to the 2023 rules on 19 August 2025 and closed comments that September, which would also let housing societies share one system between several flats.
Until that amendment is notified in the gazette, the 3 kW text stands, and every larger system on a single-phase connection rests on the August order.
Andhra Pradesh now lets a household put 5 kW of solar on a 5 kW connection, and the central subsidy still stops at 3 kW.
What we could not confirm
- Has the amendment to the 2023 rules been notified, and does it rewrite the 3 kW clause?
- How many single-phase applications were refused or cut to 3 kW before 5 August?
- Do the state's other two power companies read the order the same way?
The document
Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, Proceedings/Engg/E-280/AD(Tr.)/07/2026, dated 5 August 2026: "Grid Interactive Solar Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems under Net/Gross Metering Regulation, 2023 (Regulation No. 4 of 2023). Removal of Difficulty. Orders Issued." Issued by order of the commission over the signature of the commission secretary in charge, and addressed to the chairmen and managing directors of the state's three distribution companies.
Sources
- APERC, Proceedings/Engg/E-280/AD(Tr.)/07/2026, 5 August 2026, read as the copy published at https://www.simpliance.in/download/file/dXBsb2Fkcy9nb3Z0bm90aWZpY2F0aW9uL09yZGVyIHJlZ3JhZGluZyBHcmlkIEludGVyYWN0aXZlIFNvbGFyIFJvb2Z0b3AgUGhvdG92b2x0YWljIFN5c3RlbXMgdW5kZXIgTmV0R3Jvc3MgTWV0ZXJpbmcgUmVndWxhdGlvbiwgMjAyMyBpbiB0aGUgc3RhdGUgb2YgQW5kaHJhIFByYXNlc2gucGRm
- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Operational Guidelines for Central Financial Assistance to Residential Consumers under PM Surya Ghar, 2 July 2024: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3716e1b8c6cd17b771da77391355749f3/uploads/2024/07/202407021768035484.pdf
- The Hans India, rooftop solar added under the eastern distribution company in 2025-26, 24 July 2026: https://www.thehansindia.com/news/cities/visakhapatnam/pm-surya-ghar-push-51583-rooftop-solar-units-added-under-apepdcl-in-fy26-1100745
- Energetica India, report of the commission's decision, 12 August 2026: https://www.energetica-india.net/news/aperc-allows-up-to-5-kw-rooftop-solar-for-single-phase-consumers-in-andhra-pradesh
- SolarQuarter, report of the commission's decision, 6 August 2026: https://solarquarter.com/2026/08/06/aperc-allows-up-to-5-kw-rooftop-solar-installations-for-single-phase-consumers-in-andhra-pradesh/
- APERC, revised draft first amendment to Regulation 4 of 2023, 19 August 2025: https://aperc.gov.in/admin/upload/RevisedDraftFirstAmendment(Regulation4of2023)dt19-08-2025..pdf
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