Bangladesh, as a densely populated country consistently suffers from land scarcity, which makes it difficult to establish a large number of solar power plants. A significant portion of nationally targeted renewable energy can be produced from the solar systems of the roofs of urban areas. Government of Bangladesh has also a vision to generate power from the Solar Rooftop systems in a more effective way. The Government of Bangladesh launched the Net Metering Guideline in July 2018. Considering the potential and challenges, REEEP conducted technical feasibility for possible two grid connected solar rooftop systems as pilot projects to implement net metering guideline.

In this context, an initiative was launched to utilize existing solar roof top systems (25 KWp each) installed at Shrimp Research Station, BFRI, Bagerhat and Fish Seed Production Farm, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Khulna to conduct pilots on Net Metering Guideline. Both of those systems were installed in cooperation with SREDA and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for power supply to water pumping system. Steps were taken to reorganize the components of the system for better utilization and before connecting to the national grid with all safety features in place. To make this happen, some of those equipments along with internal connections were replaced. Also, the installed off-grid DC inverters were replaced with a single 25 KWp on grid inverter. West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd (WZPDCL) has replaced the existing 3-phase meter of BFRI Bagerhat facility and provided monitoring and supervision service. Those pilot projects may lead the way to replicate the model on other institutional rooftops.

To know more about this activity:

• Powering Residential Water Pumps with Existing Solar Rooftop System
• Net Metering Pilot Project-BFRI
• Bangladesh Net Metering Policy: Jump Starting the Solar Rooftop Market BSW