Solar EPC for Factories in West Bengal: DISCOM Rules, Approvals and Cost

A factory in West Bengal connects solar through its distribution licensee, WBSEDCL or CESC in most cases, under WBERC's 2025 rooftop regulations. Net metering is allowed up to 500 kW or the sanctioned load, whichever is lower; net billing and gross metering go up to the sanctioned load. Indicatively, 100 kW costs ₹28–32 lakh and 1 MW ₹2.40–2.60 crore, excluding GST.

Who regulates and who connects a factory plant in West Bengal?

The West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) makes the rules. Its Grid Interactive Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic System for Prosumers Regulations, 2025 (81/WBERC, 31 July 2025) apply to the distribution licensees it regulates, and the capacity table in them names four: WBSEDCL, CESC, DVC and IPCL. Your bill names yours; the application, the feasibility study, the meter and the commissioning all go through that company. WBREDA is the state nodal agency for non-conventional energy programmes; the page we reviewed lists no commercial or industrial subsidy, so check its subsidy and policy pages, and expect a factory's case to rest on avoided energy charges.

What do the WBERC rules allow?

The 2025 regulations let a prosumer put solar on the roof or elsewhere on its premises, up to the contract demand or sanctioned load, with net metering, net billing or gross metering, and with battery storage if wanted. The three arrangements differ in how the units are valued.

For a factory this means 500 kW is the practical ceiling for true self-use offset; a larger plant is billed at the feed-in tariff on whatever it exports, so size it to your daytime load. The regulations also cap how much net-metered capacity each licensee must accept: for 2025-26 and 2026-27 the table gives WBSEDCL 100 MW and 195 MW, CESC 25 MW and 50 MW, DVC 25 MW and 50 MW, and IPCL 5 MW and 5 MW, on a first-come, first-served basis, though a licensee may allow more if its network permits. Applications received after a cap is filled move to the next year. Ask your licensee where its queue stands.

If you are on a time-of-day tariff, the regulations set generation off against consumption in the same time block first, and treat surplus in a block as if it occurred in the next lower-priced block. Fixed and demand charges are still payable. Our guides to net metering and open-access solar explain the terms, and the sanctioned load calculator tests the size limit.

What is the approval sequence, and who inspects?

1. Apply on the licensee's portal. The application fee is ₹1,000 for LV and MV connections and ₹5,000 for HV and EHV.
2. For plants above 10 kW the licensee does a technical feasibility study within 15 days and communicates the result, any upgradation quotation and its clearance within 20 days; if it fails to, the proposal is deemed technically feasible and accepted.
3. Pay any infrastructure upgrade quotation within its validity of 90 days. The prosumer bears upgrade costs for plants above 10 kW.
4. Install within 180 days of clearance, extendable by up to 90 days.
5. Submit a self-certified installation certificate. The licensee then completes the agreement, meter installation and commissioning within 15 days of receiving the documents and meter fee.

The interconnection rules matter at factory size. A prosumer connects at the voltage at which it is supplied; cumulative rooftop capacity on a feeder or distribution transformer may not exceed 100 percent of its capacity; and an HT consumer may connect the plant at its LT bus, provided the net meter is on the HT side of its transformer. The regulations require a fitness certificate on islanding and harmonics. Whether a plant at HT also needs the Electrical Inspector's approval depends on the voltage and capacity thresholds the state notifies under the CEA safety regulations, so confirm that with the licensee and read our guide to electrical inspector approval for factories.

What about captive and open access?

WBERC's Open Access Regulations, 2022 (75/WBERC) provide that consumers with contract demand or sanctioned load of 100 kW or more are eligible for green energy open access, with no load limit for captive consumers. A captive plant that runs in parallel with the licensee's grid faces a further charge: in an order of 7 October 2026 (OA-575/26-27), WBERC held that the parallel operation or grid support charge in Regulation 103.8 of its 2026 tariff regulations is leviable on a consumer with an in-situ captive plant operating in parallel with WBSEDCL's system, at the rate in the tariff order, on net capacity in kVA. The order does not say whether it reaches a rooftop plant under the prosumer regulations, so ask your licensee in writing before choosing a captive structure. Our guide to captive solar versus open access compares the routes.

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

Secured Engineers publishes a rooftop C&I band of ₹24,000–32,000 per kW excluding GST on its solar EPC page, with larger plants toward the lower end. The figures below are on our size pages. They are indicative, not a quotation, and exclude HT-side works and statutory fees.

West Bengal adds its own drivers. Our size pages plan about 105 to 115 units per kW per month for the East, below the north Indian figure of about 120, so the same plant earns a little less; the monsoon cuts generation and a coastal site needs a wind design basis and better coatings for the structure. Put your own bill into the solar calculator. Modules must meet the ALMM rules for your route; see our ALMM guide.

Where does industrial demand sit in West Bengal?

The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation's website lists industrial parks and land banks including Vidyasagar Industrial Park and a cycle park at Kharagpur, Sahachawk Industrial Park and Garbeta-III in Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly Industrial Park, Panagarh, the Gems & Jewellery Park at Ankurhati in Howrah, Mangalpur at Asansol, Durgapur and Haringhata. Some are land offered for allotment and some are proposals, so treat the list as where load is planned, not a map of running factories. Our industrial solar EPC page and solar for factories page cover the rooftop case.

How Secured Engineers helps

We are a pan-India EPC contractor and mobilise to West Bengal from our offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana. There is no Secured Engineers project in West Bengal to cite. We design in-house, file Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering applications in-house, and deliver MEPF and solar under one contract. We have 535+ projects across 18+ states and 89.77% repeat clients.

Send a recent bill, the sanctioned load and a roof or land drawing, and we will tell you which arrangement fits and what the feeder check is likely to ask. See our solar EPC page, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.