The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued new directives requiring inverter manufacturers to share daily generation data with the National Portal through a uniform application programming interface (API). According to reports from Business Standard, this move represents a significant shift from tracking installation numbers to measuring actual electricity generation from rooftop solar systems under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana. In an office memorandum issued on August 17, the ministry explicitly directed inverter OEMs and manufacturers to share daily cumulative energy generated in a day with the National Portal, with the data mapped to the inverter serial number.
As of the latest data, more than 4.4 million rooftop solar systems have been installed under PM Surya Ghar, benefiting over 5.2 million households and adding 15.6 GW of capacity. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the scheme aims to install rooftop solar systems in 1 crore households and add 30 GW of residential rooftop solar capacity. The government estimates these systems will generate 1,000 billion units of electricity over their 25-year lifetime.
According to reports from The Times of India, only around 15 percent of inverters currently have the capability to share data through APIs. The requirements also mandate that applications, monitoring and control servers, as well as cloud-hosted data linked to inverter systems, must be located in India. An integrated dashboard to collate the information is yet to be created, highlighting the technical challenges in implementing the new monitoring system. The data would allow generation to be assessed at the individual-system level and analysed across states and distribution companies.
PM Surya Ghar currently provides central financial assistance for residential rooftop solar systems based on system capacity, with the government providing 60 percent of system cost for systems up to 2 kW and 40 percent for systems between 2 kW and 3 kW. At current benchmark prices, the subsidy amounts to ₹30,000 for a 1 kW system, ₹60,000 for a 2 kW system, and ₹78,000 for systems of 3 kW or more. As reported by Financial Express, the government is considering an overhaul of PM Surya Ghar under a proposed next phase that could link support to actual electricity generation, battery storage, and system performance. The proposed changes could include generation guarantees, virtual metering, AI-based quality checks and a digital record of a system's output, service history and warranty status.
The generation data could significantly benefit distribution companies in power purchase planning, as reported by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri). According to Alekhya Datta, director at Teri, distribution companies with data on electricity generated by rooftop solar plants in their respective areas will be able to plan their power purchases accordingly. The new requirements provide the government with a systematic approach to measure rooftop solar generation at the individual inverter level as it considers whether future support under PM Surya Ghar should be linked more closely to generation and system performance. The government-appointed Expert Committee on Energy Statistics noted in July that generation, export and self-consumption data from rooftop solar systems are not uniformly recorded or aggregated by distribution companies, with meter readings either not visible to discoms or not recorded systematically.
