The assumption that just broke
Self-generation used to be the cheap option for Pakistani industry. A deliberate policy has changed that: an off-grid (captive) levy on gas used for self-generation is ramping up on a fixed schedule, pushing captive users back toward the grid and toward solar.
| Effective | Levy rate |
|---|---|
| February 2025 | 5% |
| July 2025 | 10% |
| February 2026 | 15% |
| August 2026 | 20% |
Why the lowest-cost source is now a moving target
The market has responded exactly as the policy intended. Captive gas use in the export sector collapsed — roughly 180 down to about 26 mmcfd — while industrial sales from the grid rose around 46% year on year. Analysts now put captive generation above grid cost for many users, reversing the assumption a whole generation of factories was built on.
And it is not a one-time flip. Grid price varies by time-of-use window; solar costs the least when the sun is up and nothing when you use it directly; generator cost rides on fuel plus the rising levy. The lowest-cost unit genuinely changes through the day — so any static rule about “which source to run” quietly loses money.
You can’t manage what the bill blends together
The catch is that the bill and the standard tools don’t separate the sources. The utility meters only grid import. A generator, if it is monitored at all, sits on its own controller. Solar has its own app. Nobody unifies them into a single answer to the only question that matters: what did each source cost me per unit this month?
Getting that answer needs generator energy measured separately from grid, and cost attributed by source — continuously, not reconstructed from spreadsheets after the fact.
Where BijliBachao fits
WattEY classifies each meter from its own telemetry — grid-only, solar-exporting, or with a generator attached — and separates generator run-time and energy from grid import, so cost can be attributed by source. That matters most in Pakistan, where industrial power is among the region’s highest (roughly double several regional competitors) and energy is 12–18% of input cost in a sector like textiles.
When a few rupees per unit across grid, generator, and solar decides whether an order is profitable, seeing each source separately is not a nicety — it is how the decision gets made. WattEY provides that per-source view; it does not sell the fuel or the generator.
