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

A factory in Madhya Pradesh applies to its DISCOM for net metering under MPERC's 2024 regulations, which allow up to 500 kW within the sanctioned load or contract demand. At our published ₹24,000–32,000 per kW excluding GST, 100 kW is about ₹24–32 lakh and 1 MW about ₹2.4–3.2 crore, before a site survey. Larger plants use other routes.

Who is involved?

Madhya Pradesh has three regional distribution companies: MP Poorv Kshetra (East), MP Madhya Kshetra (Central) and MP Paschim Kshetra (West), commonly shortened to MPPKVVCL, MPMKVVCL and MPPaKVVCL. Your bill names the one that supplies you. The Central company's consumer portal lists an "Apply for Solar Rooftop (non-subsidy)" service, and the regulations require every licensee to run an online application portal and publish its procedure and fees. MPERC also issues separate tariff orders for the MPIDC-run Pithampur and Mohasa-Babai industrial areas, so check the licensee for your plot if you are in one of them.

What does the regulation allow, and where does it stop?

• Net metering: up to 500 kW for consumers of all categories, with minimum size 1 kW. Capacity must not exceed the contract demand (demand-based tariff) or sanctioned load (load-based tariff). Prosumers already net-metered above 500 kW keep that facility.
• Transformer cap: the cumulative renewable capacity on a distribution transformer must not exceed 80 per cent of its rating. For an HT consumer, the plant must be no more than 80 per cent of the rating of the licensee's transformer serving that consumer.
• Gross metering: up to 1 MW, where the licensee buys the whole output at the discovered tariff and bills your consumption separately.
• Arrears: a consumer with pending arrears is not eligible for any of the arrangements.
• Open access: a consumer on net or gross metering cannot also use intra-state open access. Open access is a separate route, with its own regulation, amended most recently by MPERC in January 2026.

Above the net-metering limit the options are gross metering, captive use or open access. The Green Energy Open Access Rules, 2022 lowered the open-access threshold for green energy from 1 MW to 100 kW and set a 15-day approval with deemed grant, and the Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2026 clarified captive ownership and the verification of captive status. Our guide to open-access solar sets these routes out.

How long does the DISCOM take, and what does it cost?

1. Apply in the prescribed form with a processing fee of Rs 1,000, online or at the office. The application is deemed received on the date the acknowledgement and registration number are generated.
2. Feasibility: the licensee must complete the study within 20 days, and within 15 days for rooftop solar. If it does not communicate the result in 15 days, the net-metering application for rooftop solar is deemed accepted.
3. Approval: a Letter of Approval within 30 days of the acknowledgement, on receipt of full payment.
4. Upgrades: if the transformer or service line needs strengthening, it is done by the licensee or the applicant under MPERC's recovery-of-expenses regulations.
5. Commissioning: within 15 days of the installation certificate for solar, covering the connection agreement, the meter and commissioning. You can buy the meter yourself to the licensee's specification, and the licensee tests and installs it.

If the licensee delays without just cause, the regulation provides compensation of Rs 500 a day. MPERC's 2026 first amendment exempts PM Surya Ghar connections from the processing fee, which does not apply to a commercial factory plant.

Who inspects and energises?

The regulation requires the interconnection to meet the CEA's distributed generation connectivity regulations of 2013, the CEA safety regulations of 2023 and the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Grid Code 2021. The inverter must filter harmonics, with total harmonic distortion within the limits in the grid code and IEEE standards, and have anti-islanding protection and an automatic synchronising device. The licensee can disconnect a plant that threatens its network. Under the CEA safety regulations an installation above the notified voltage or capacity needs the state electrical inspector's approval before it is energised, as does a modification to an existing installation. HT-connected factories typically fall inside that; confirm the threshold with the inspector's office.

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

Secured Engineers publishes a C&I solar band of ₹24,000–32,000 per kW excluding GST on its solar EPC page; larger plants sit nearer the lower end. These are indicative figures, not a quotation.

What moves a price inside the band is roof type and height, structure and wind design, HT or LT interconnection, cable length, metering scope and the make of modules and inverters. Test your own numbers in the solar calculator, and see our pages on 100 kW, 500 kW and 1 MW plants.

What happens to surplus units?

Excess exported in a billing period is carried forward. The settlement period runs from the October billing month to the end of September, and the carried-forward quantity resets to zero at the start of each period. Unadjusted credit at the end is payable by 15 November at the lowest tariff discovered in solar or wind bidding in the state in the previous financial year. Net-metered systems, self-owned or leased by a service company, are exempt from banking, wheeling, cross-subsidy and additional surcharge. Our net-metering savings calculator shows what that means for your bill. Industrial clusters such as Pithampur, Mandideep and Malanpur differ in licensee and load, so size each plant to its own connection.

How Secured Engineers helps

We are a pan-India EPC. Design is done in-house, and Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering applications are filed in-house, with MEPF and solar under one contract if you want it. We work from offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana, with 535+ projects across 18+ states and 89.77% repeat clients. This site records no delivered solar projects in Madhya Pradesh; for a Madhya Pradesh factory we mobilise from Noida and Ludhiana, and we say so before you compare quotations.

If you send a recent bill, the sanctioned load and the roof or land drawing, we will tell you how much plant the connection allows and which route applies. See our solar for factories page, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.