How to read a net-metering bill, line by line

A net-metering bill looks like an ordinary bill with a few extra rows, but those rows change how everything is calculated. This guide walks through a real LESCO bill for September 2026 (personal details removed). The same layout is used by every PITC-run distribution company: LESCO, IESCO, FESCO, GEPCO, MEPCO, PESCO and HESCO.

The connection details

The top of the bill tells you what kind of connection you have. On a net-metering bill, look for:

• Tariff, for example A-1b(03)T. A-1 is domestic, b is the time-of-use (peak/off-peak) tariff, and T marks a three-phase meter.
• Connection type: NET METERING CONNECTION.
• Sanctioned load: the load in kW you are approved for (8 kW on our example). Under the 2026 rules, new solar systems are capped at this figure.
• MDI: maximum demand indicator, the highest load the meter recorded this month (4 kW here).
• Reference number: 14 digits, used to download the web bill. The consumer ID (8 digits on LESCO) identifies the connection.

The four meter registers

Your green (bidirectional) meter keeps four separate counters. The bill shows each with its previous reading, present reading and units:

Import is what you took from the grid. Export is what your panels sent to it. Off-peak covers every hour outside the evening peak window; peak is a four-hour evening window that moves with the season (see peak hours in Pakistan).

The first check anyone can do: present minus previous should equal units (times the multiplying factor, which is 1 on household meters). If it doesn’t, the reading is wrong.

Notice how lopsided the bands are. Almost all exports (918 units) happen in daylight, which is off-peak. Peak exports are close to zero because the sun has set. Peak imports (327 units) are the evening fans, lights and air-conditioners. This mismatch is the main reason solar homes still get bills.

Net units: import minus export

Net units are worked out separately in each band:

• NET-OP = 871 − 918 = −47. Negative: you exported more than you imported in off-peak hours.
• NET-PK = 327 − 1 = 326. Positive: you are charged for these.

Billed units on the bill is the sum: −47 + 326 = 279. That is why billed units on a solar bill can look tiny compared with what the house actually used.

Off-peak credit does not cancel peak units one for one. The two bands are priced separately, so 326 peak units cost far more than 47 off-peak units earn. See why your bill is still high.

Month count and carried-forward units

Net-metering bills are settled over a cycle, usually a quarter. Two fields tell you where you are in it:

• MONTH COUNT: 3/3 means this is the third and final month of the cycle, the settlement month.
• REMAINING-PREVIOUS-OP / PK: net units carried forward from earlier months of the cycle. Our example carried −1,066 off-peak units (a surplus) and 622 peak units (owed).
• REMAINING-PRESENT-OP / PK: what carries into next month. At 3/3 these reset to 0.

So at settlement the bill prices the whole quarter: off-peak −47 − 1,066 = −1,113, peak 326 + 622 = 948. More on this in how quarterly settlement works.

The charges

The net-metering QR code (and the charges box) lists the bill components:

Rs 25.32 is the buyback rate for surplus units under pre-2026 agreements (NEPRA’s national average power purchase price for 2026). Rs 46.85 is the peak tariff. If your off-peak band were net positive, those units would instead be charged at the off-peak tariff, Rs 34.53. Many domestic bills no longer show electricity duty: the federal government asked provinces to stop collecting it through electricity bills from July 2025.

The full working, with every step, is in how a net-metering bill is calculated. Other months or DISCOs may add lines such as FPA (fuel price adjustment), QTA (quarterly tariff adjustment), income tax or further tax; see FPA, fixed charges and taxes.

Arrears, credit and the amount payable

The bottom of the bill brings in your running balance:

• Arrears: −185,086. The minus means the account was already in credit by Rs 185,086.
• Current bill: 22,628.
• Payable: −185,086 + 22,628 = 162,458 CR.

When the total ends in CR, there is nothing to pay. The current bill was simply taken out of the credit. The bill-history table on the right shows the same balance month by month, so you can see the credit rise in sunny months and fall in winter or after a settlement.

The two QR codes

PITC net-metering bills carry two QR codes:

1. Payment QR: a standard bank-payment code with the DISCO’s name, collection account, your consumer ID, the 14-digit reference, the bill month and the due date. It ends in a checksum, so a damaged or altered code can be detected.
2. Net-metering QR: plain text with your customer details, solar capacity (DG-CAPACITY), commissioning date, the four registers, net units, month count, carried-forward units and the bill components. This is the most precise record on the bill.

Solar Bill reads both, compares them with the printed numbers, and recomputes each line. If anything doesn’t add up, it says which line and by how much.

A 60-second checklist

1. Present − previous = units, for all four registers.
2. NET-OP = IMP-OP − EXP-OP, and NET-PK = IMP-PK − EXP-PK.
3. Billed units = NET-OP + NET-PK.
4. If MONTH COUNT shows the last month, COE uses quarter totals, including REMAINING-PREVIOUS.
5. If the bill shows E-DUTY, it equals ED-RATE % of COE.
6. GST ≈ 18% of COE + fixed charge + duty.
7. Payable = arrears + current bill. CR means credit.