Panels on the roof is halftime, not victory.
Until the bidirectional meter is in, the inspection has passed and the commissioning certificate exists, your system earns nothing and your subsidy is theoretical. This is the stage projects drift at — and the stage we refuse to let drift.
The physical installation of a rooftop system takes days. What follows — the net-meter application, the meter’s procurement and installation, the DISCOM inspection, the grid-connection agreement, the commissioning certificate — takes weeks when managed and months when not. It is the least visible part of the project and the most consequential: every week of drift is a week of generation you paid for and cannot use, and the subsidy does not move until commissioning is complete.
The stage is genuinely bureaucratic, but it is not arbitrary. Meters must be procured to specification and calibrated; inspections check real safety items — earthing, protections, and anti-islanding behaviour that protects the linemen working on your street during outages; and the connection agreement defines how your exports are credited for years. Files stall for prosaic reasons: an application waiting on one document, an inspection failed on one loose earthing strap, a meter ‘in procurement’ that nobody has asked about for three weeks. Every one of those has the same cure — someone competent whose job is to ask.
That is this service. We file the net-meter application correctly, pre-check the installation against the inspection checklist before the inspector arrives, attend or coordinate the inspection, resolve punch-list items with the installer, and follow the commissioning certificate and subsidy claim until the money is in your account. Installer-agnostic, DISCOM-fluent, and stubborn on your behalf.
From installed to earning.
- Net-meter application
- Filed complete — connection details, installation documents, test reports — in your DISCOM's required format, so the clock starts without a bounce.
- Pre-inspection check
- The installation reviewed against the DISCOM's inspection checklist — earthing, protections, signage, inverter settings — with the installer fixing gaps before the inspector sees them.
- Meter & inspection coordination
- Meter procurement chased, inspection scheduled and attended/coordinated, punch-list items driven to closure with the installer while the momentum holds.
- Connection agreement review
- The grid-connection/net-metering agreement read before signature — export crediting, billing cycle treatment, obligations — explained in plain language.
- Commissioning & portal closure
- Commissioning certificate generated, portal records completed, and your first net-metered bill sanity-checked so crediting started as agreed.
- Subsidy release follow-through
- Bank details verified on the portal and the CFA disbursement tracked until the credit appears in your account — the finish line, in writing.
Two situations, one fix.
Planning ahead
You're mid-project and want this stage managed from the start — application filed the day installation completes, inspection pre-checked, no drift. The cheapest version of this service is the preventive one.
Already stuck
Installed months ago; the meter, inspection or subsidy hasn't moved; the installer has stopped answering. We diagnose exactly where the file sits — usually one document or one correction — and push it through.
What we can and can’t control.
- We can’t skip the queue. DISCOM inspection schedules and meter stocks are what they are. What we control is never being the reason the file waits — and asking, on record, when it does.
- Failed inspections are fixable. Punch-list items are workmanship details, not death sentences. We get them closed and the re-inspection booked — but the installer's contract (which we help you write) is what obliges them to show up for it.
- Rules differ by state and DISCOM. Metering arrangements, system-size limits and crediting terms are set by state regulators and change. We work from your DISCOM's current rules, not a national generalisation.
Often paired with
Net metering: clear answers.
- Net metering replaces your ordinary meter with a bidirectional one that records electricity in both directions: units you import from the grid and units your solar system exports to it. Your bill is then computed on the net — imports minus exports — per your state's regulations. In effect, the grid works like a battery: surplus solar generated at noon offsets the units you draw at night.
- Under net metering, your generation first serves your own consumption and only the surplus is exported and credited. Under gross metering, all generation is exported and paid a fixed feed-in tariff, while you buy your consumption at retail rates separately. Net metering usually favours self-consuming homes and businesses; which arrangements are available (and for what system sizes) depends on your state's regulations.
- Broadly: that the installed capacity matches the approval, that protective devices (earthing, surge protection, isolation switches) are correctly installed, that the inverter meets grid-safety standards including anti-islanding (shutting off exports during a grid outage so linemen aren't endangered), and that metering wiring is correct. Failing items are typically workmanship details — which is why we pre-check against the inspection list before booking it.
- Typically two to six weeks from application to a commissioned, exporting system — meter procurement/installation and the inspection queue are the moving parts, and both vary by DISCOM and season. Files that stall longer are almost always waiting on a document or a correction nobody was told about; the fix is active follow-up, which is a large part of what this service is.
- After commissioning: once the net meter is in, the inspection passes and the commissioning certificate is generated on the national portal, you submit bank details and the CFA is disbursed directly to your account — the government has worked to bring this within weeks of commissioning. The net-metering stage is therefore literally the gate to your money, which is why leaving it to drift is expensive.