Under NEPRA’s 2026 prosumer rules, a unit of solar you export to the grid earns roughly Rs 11. The same unit bought back from the grid at night costs you your full tariff — Rs 55 to 65 for most Karachi households, and Rs 45 to 55 at the upper slabs elsewhere. That gap is the whole case for a hybrid system in 2026: a battery lets you keep your own midday surplus and use it after sunset instead of selling it cheap and buying it back dear.
This guide is not about what a hybrid system costs compared with on-grid — we cover that on our on-grid vs hybrid price page. It is about the arithmetic that decides whether storage pays for your home under net billing. The short answer: a battery pays when you have daytime surplus to store and evening load to spend it on.
What Net Billing Changed for Batteries
For a decade, Pakistani net metering valued exports and imports one-for-one. Every unit you sent to the grid at noon cancelled a unit you drew at night, so the grid behaved like a free battery. Under that system a real battery was mostly a load-shedding convenience — it could not beat the deal the grid was already giving you.
NEPRA’s Prosumer Regulations 2026 replaced that with net billing. New applicants export at a buyback rate of roughly Rs 11 per unit and import at the normal retail tariff. Customers who signed a net metering agreement before the change are grandfathered on their old terms until the agreement expires; everyone connecting now is on net billing. Our NEPRA prosumer regulations explainer covers the rules in full.
The effect on storage is direct. Every unit you store and use at night instead of exporting is worth the difference between your tariff and Rs 11.
| What happens to one surplus unit | Value to you (PKR) |
|---|---|
| Exported to the grid at midday | about 11 |
| Stored and used at night (upper-slab tariff outside Karachi) | 45–55 saved |
| Stored and used at night (most Karachi households) | 55–65 saved |
| Gain from storing instead of exporting | about 34–54 per unit |
What a Hybrid System Actually Does
A hybrid system adds two things to an ordinary grid-tied setup: a lithium battery bank and a hybrid inverter that can move power between the panels, the battery, the house and the grid. During the day the inverter runs your loads from solar first, then charges the battery from the surplus, and only exports what is left. After sunset it discharges the battery into your loads before it imports anything.
The second job is backup. A standard on-grid inverter must shut down when the grid fails, for the safety of line workers. A hybrid inverter isolates the house and keeps the backed-up circuits running from the battery and whatever the panels are producing. In cities with regular load-shedding, that is often what buyers notice first — but under net billing it is no longer the only reason to buy one.
The hybrid inverters we install are from Huawei, Sungrow, GoodWe, Fox and Inverex, paired with LiFePO4 lithium batteries. Our inverter comparison covers the differences between them.
The Arithmetic: When Storage Pays for Itself
A battery only earns on surplus that actually exists. Take a 10kW hybrid system with a 10 kWh lithium bank. A lithium pack delivers roughly 85% of its nameplate capacity in daily use, so if the array produces enough surplus to fill it, the bank shifts about 8.5 units a day — roughly 255 units a month — from export to self-use.
The figures below use the median prices in our own customer quotes: about Rs 5.26 Lakh for a 10 kWh bank on its own, and a hybrid premium of about Rs 7.8 Lakh for a 10kW system (the battery plus the hybrid inverter upgrade). For a 5kW system with a 5 kWh bank, the hybrid premium is about Rs 2.75 Lakh.
| Setup | Units shifted per month | Monthly gain at Rs 34/unit | Monthly gain at Rs 44/unit | Payback on hybrid premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5kW + 5 kWh bank (premium ~2.75 Lakh) | ~128 | ~Rs 4,350 | ~Rs 5,600 | about 4–5.5 years |
| 10kW + 10 kWh bank (premium ~7.8 Lakh) | ~255 | ~Rs 8,700 | ~Rs 11,200 | about 6–7.5 years |
| 10 kWh bank alone (~5.26 Lakh) | ~255 | ~Rs 8,700 | ~Rs 11,200 | about 4–5 years |
Two things follow. First, the battery on its own pays back well inside its working life; the slower number in the 10kW row is carrying the hybrid inverter too. Second, the result is sensitive to how full the battery gets. A bank that only fills halfway most days earns half as much, which is why sizing matters more than brand.
Load-shedding cover sits on top of these numbers. If a battery keeps your fans, lights and an inverter AC running through a summer outage, that has value the table does not count.
Sizing the Battery to Your Surplus, Not Your Roof
Under net metering, the advice was to size the battery for the outage you wanted to ride through. Under net billing there is a second test: the bank should be about the size of the surplus you would otherwise export, and no bigger than the load you can use after sunset.
- Find your midday surplus. Look at what your system exports on a typical sunny day. On an existing system the inverter app or Sol AI shows this directly; for a new system we estimate it from your bill and daily routine.
- Find your evening load. Lights, fans, a fridge and one inverter AC from sunset to midnight is a common pattern. If your evening use is small, a large bank will never empty and never earn.
- Take the smaller of the two. That is the number of units the battery can actually shift each day. Divide by about 0.85 for the bank size to buy.
- Then check backup. If the outage you need to cover is longer than that, size up for resilience — knowing the extra kWh are insurance rather than savings.
What Batteries Cost Right Now
Lithium storage in our customer quotes runs from about Rs 45,000 to Rs 65,000 per kWh installed and GST-inclusive, with a typical figure near Rs 52,000. Bigger banks cost slightly less per kWh, but the effect is mild.
| Bank size | Typical price (median of our quotes) | Shifts per month (if filled daily) |
|---|---|---|
| ~5 kWh | Rs 2.62 Lakh | ~128 units |
| ~10 kWh | Rs 5.26 Lakh | ~255 units |
| ~15 kWh | Rs 6.27 Lakh | ~380 units |
When On-Grid Is Still the Better Choice
A battery is not the answer for every home. On-grid alone usually makes more sense if most of your use already happens in daylight — a family at home all day running ACs from late morning, or a home office — because there is little surplus to store. It also makes sense when the budget is tight and the grid in your area is reliable. In that case, the cheaper fix is to move flexible loads such as washing, water pumping and ironing into the sunny hours, which captures much of the same value for free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a solar battery worth it under net billing in Pakistan?
Usually yes, if you have daytime surplus and evening load. Each unit you store instead of exporting saves roughly Rs 34 to 54, depending on your tariff. A 10 kWh bank that fills most days pays back in about four to five years on our current median prices, before counting any value from load-shedding backup.
Do I still get net billing with a hybrid system?
Yes. A hybrid system can be grid-connected and apply for net billing like any on-grid system. Whatever the battery cannot absorb is exported at the buyback rate of roughly Rs 11 per unit.
I already have net metering. Should I add a battery?
If your agreement was signed before the 2026 change, you keep one-for-one terms until it expires, so the grid is still acting as your battery and storage has little financial payoff. Add a battery for backup if you need it, and revisit the savings case when your agreement comes up for renewal.
How big should my battery be?
Size it to the smaller of your daily solar surplus and your evening load, then divide by about 0.85. For many 5kW to 10kW homes that lands between 5 and 10 kWh. Size up only if you need longer outage cover.
Related Reading
- On-grid vs hybrid solar price in Pakistan — system prices side by side.
- NEPRA prosumer regulations 2026 — what net billing changed.
- Lithium battery price in Pakistan — per-kWh and bank prices by brand.
- 10kW solar system price — on-grid and hybrid totals installed.
- Solar for load shedding — sizing backup for outages.
To see how much surplus your own home would store, run your bill through the solar calculator or ask our engineers for a sized hybrid quote.