What a 5 MW Solar Plant Costs and Needs: Roof, Land, Connection and Approvals

A 5 MW solar plant for a factory costs roughly ₹12–16 crore excluding GST if scaled from the Secured Engineers C&I band of ₹24,000–32,000 per kW, with a plant this size nearer the lower end. It needs about five lakh sq ft of roof or around 20 acres of ground, an 11 kV or 33 kV connection, and a captive or open access approval, not net metering.

What 5 MW costs, and what the figure leaves out

The company publishes a C&I solar band of ₹24,000–32,000 per kW excluding GST on its solar EPC page. The 1 MW page puts a megawatt at the lower end of that band, and a 5 MW plant buys modules, inverters and structures in larger lots. Treat the lower end as the starting point and every number below as indicative until a survey.

The band assumes a connection point already exists. At 5 MW that is the assumption most likely to fail, so settle it first. Smaller sizes are covered on the 100 kW, 250 kW and 500 kW pages. Run your own bill through the payback calculator.

Roof, ground or off-site: where does 5 MW go?

Five lakh sq ft of clean roof is rare on one site, and a roof that large is usually many sheds of different heights. The three layouts behave differently.

Where the roof cannot take the full plant, a hybrid is common: roof for the daytime base load and an off-site plant for the rest. Our articles on ground-mount solar on factory land and captive versus open access cover the trade-offs. The solar calculator gives the first sizing against your load.

Why net metering stops applying

The central rules allow net metering for loads up to 500 kW, raised from 10 kW by a 2021 amendment to the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 (Ministry of Power review, via PIB). State regulations can be lower. A 5 MW plant therefore sits in a different regime, and you choose between three routes.

• Own captive plant. Rule 3 of the Electricity Rules, 2005: the users together own at least 26% of the plant and consume at least 51% of its annual generation. An amendment notified in March 2026 clarified ownership through subsidiaries and holding companies, and provided for captive status to be verified by a state nodal agency (or NLDC for inter-state) from 1 April 2026, with cross-subsidy and additional surcharge not levied pending verification if a declaration is filed.
• Group captive through an SPV. Several consumers hold equity in a special purpose company that owns the plant. The equity and consumption tests apply to the group, and a single factory that is the sole owner does not need an SPV.
• Green energy open access. The 2022 Green Energy Open Access Rules lowered the open access limit for green energy from 1 MW to 100 kW, with approval in 15 days or deemed granted. Wheeling, cross-subsidy, additional surcharge and banking rules are set by your state commission, so compare them on your bill. See our open access solar page.

Module sourcing also matters. For open access and net-metering projects commissioned after 1 June 2026, MNRE requires cells from ALMM List-II unless it grants a case-specific extension (PIB, May 2026); an MNRE notice also refers to a limited window until 31 December 2026, which we could not read in full. Check how the order treats your structure, and confirm the current window on the MNRE site, before you place a module order; our note on ALMM List-II and commissioning explains the dates.

Interconnection and inverter architecture

At 5 MW the plant normally connects at 11 kV or 33 kV, depending on the DISCOM's feasibility study and your existing supply. That means a breaker bay, CT and PT metering, protection relays with reverse-power and frequency settings, and drawings approved by the state Electrical Inspector before energisation. Our article on connecting at 11 kV sets out the works, and the CEIG approval page covers the inspection.

A 5 MW plant is normally built in blocks, each with its own inverters and transformer, so a fault removes a block rather than the whole plant. String inverters give finer fault isolation; central inverters reduce the number of units. The choice depends on layout and service access; see string versus central inverters. Before design, check that the existing transformer and feeder can take the plant without tripping at low load, as in our transformer headroom note.

The order of work

1. Bill analysis and daytime load profile, to decide how much of 5 MW you can actually absorb.
2. Route decision: captive, group captive or open access, with the state charges checked.
3. Site: roof survey or land title, soil and drainage, shadow study.
4. Connectivity application and DISCOM or transmission feasibility letter.
5. Design, single-line diagram, protection study and inspector drawing approval.
6. Procurement with ALMM compliance, then civil, structure, electrical and HT works.
7. Inspection, energisation, meter and open access or captive registration, then commissioning.

The connection letter and the inspector approval, not the installation, usually set the date. Insist on a programme that shows them as separate lines.

How Secured Engineers helps

Secured Engineers designs solar plants in-house and files the CEIG and DISCOM net-metering or registration applications in-house, with MEPF and solar under one contract where a site needs both. The company works from offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana, with 535+ projects across 18+ states and 89.77% repeat clients. It can assess whether your load supports 5 MW before any money is committed.

To size the plant against your bill, start with the solar calculator, then send your last twelve bills and site details on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.