Solar EPC for Factories in Andhra Pradesh: DISCOM Rules, Approvals and Cost

A factory in Andhra Pradesh connects rooftop solar through its distribution company (APSPDCL, APEPDCL or APCPDCL) under APERC's rooftop regulation, which caps net metering at 500 kW. Larger plants use net billing, gross metering, captive supply or open access. At our published ₹24,000 to ₹32,000 per kW excluding GST, 100 kW is about ₹28 to 32 lakh and 1 MW about ₹2.4 to 2.6 crore.

Which DISCOM and which agencies are involved?

Andhra Pradesh has three distribution licensees: the Southern Power Distribution Company (APSPDCL), the Eastern (APEPDCL) and the Central (APCPDCL). Your electricity bill names yours. It performs the feasibility check, signs the net-metering agreement, fits the meter and synchronises the plant, so the timeline for the same plant can differ between a factory near Visakhapatnam and one near Tirupati.

The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) writes the rooftop and open-access regulations. The New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) is the state's nodal agency for the Integrated Clean Energy Policy, 2024, and publishes its operational guidelines. Check NREDCAP and your DISCOM for any state incentive before you finalise the commercial case. We do not assume one applies.

What do APERC's rules allow?

The governing text is APERC's Grid Interactive Solar Rooftop PV Systems regulation (Regulation 4 of 2023), published in the state gazette in February 2024 and amended by Regulation 10 of 2025. The table is drawn from the Commission's published orders and statements of reasons, which summarise the capacity ranges. Confirm each figure in the regulation as amended and corrected by the Commission's errata, before you rely on it.

Secondary reports of the regulation also state that cumulative rooftop capacity on a distribution transformer is limited to 80 percent of its rating; confirm this in the gazetted text. A plant that fits your sanctioned load can still fail the transformer check if solar already takes much of the transformer that serves you. In the 2025 amendment the Commission considered and declined a request to lift net metering to 1 MW, noting that consumers can go up to 1 MW under net billing. For the regimes and their economics, our pages on open access solar and the solar calculator are the next stop.

Who inspects the plant and who energises it?

The DISCOM checks the metering and interconnection, fits or tests the meter and synchronises the plant. The central Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, as amended in February 2024, require the feasibility study for systems above 10 kW to be completed in 15 days, with approval deemed if the study is not done in time, and the DISCOM to commission the system within 15 days. These are central timelines; ask the DISCOM for its own.

For electrical safety, the CEA safety regulations, 2023 leave it to each state to notify the voltage up to which an owner self-certifies and the generating capacity above which the Electrical Inspector must inspect before commissioning. We have not confirmed Andhra Pradesh's notification, so ask the state Electrical Inspectorate which applies to your connection voltage and plant size, and put the answer in the schedule. Our guide to electrical inspector approval for factories explains the usual sequence.

What is the approval sequence?

1. Load and transformer check. Confirm sanctioned load or contract demand, and the headroom on the transformer and feeder.
2. Design and single-line diagram. Fix the capacity and the point of connection.
3. DISCOM application and feasibility. File with the load details, equipment data sheets and drawings. The central 15-day feasibility clock applies above 10 kW.
4. Procurement against ALMM. For net-metering and open-access projects, MNRE's order of 4 August 2026 says List-I (modules) applies, and List-II (cells) is exempt only for projects commissioned by 31 December 2026. Behind-the-meter private captive plants are outside both lists. Metering decides which you are.
5. Installation, DISCOM inspection and the electrical safety step that applies to your plant size.
6. Meter, agreement, synchronisation and commissioning, with the record kept on file.

Ask every quotation to show installation and approvals as separate lines, and say who files each application and who pays each fee.

What does the cost band mean at 100 kW, 500 kW and 1 MW?

Secured Engineers publishes a C&I solar band of ₹24,000 to ₹32,000 per kW excluding GST on its solar EPC page, with larger plants at the lower end. These figures are indicative, not a quotation, and the sizes link to our 100 kW, 500 kW and 1 MW cost pages.

GST on renewable energy devices is 5 percent as of September 2025 following the GST Council's 56th meeting, and your adviser should confirm how an EPC invoice is split. The cost does not include HT-side works, roof strengthening, batteries or statutory fees, which depend on the site. Run your own bill in the solar calculator, which uses your location and tariff, because our planning generation figure of 120 units per kW per month is for the northern belt and not for Andhra Pradesh.

Where does industrial demand sit?

APIIC, the state's industrial infrastructure corporation, says on its site that it has more than 550 industrial parks and lists clusters on the Visakhapatnam–Chennai industrial corridor, including Atchutapuram and Rambilli, Nakkapalli and Yerpedu–Srikalahasti. Factories in such parks are often HT consumers with sizeable daytime load and shed roofs, which is the profile where rooftop solar is easiest to justify. If your roof is too small, a carport or a ground-mount on spare land, or open access for the balance, are the usual alternatives.

How Secured Engineers helps

Secured Engineers is a pan-India EPC contractor that designs the plant in-house and files the DISCOM net-metering application, the electrical inspector filing and related approvals in-house. Solar can sit under one MEPF contract with the factory's electrical, fire and HVAC work. We work from offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana, across 535+ projects in 18+ states, with 89.77% repeat clients. There is no Secured Engineers project on record in Andhra Pradesh, so this guide cites none; for a plant there we mobilise from Noida and Ludhiana and agree local site arrangements at proposal stage.

Send us your latest electricity bill and the sanctioned load, and we will tell you which APERC route fits and what the plant is likely to need. See our solar EPC service, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.