Two numbers, one bill
Once you have solar and a net-metering connection, “how much did we consume?” has two answers. Gross throughput is the total energy that moved — everything your loads drew, regardless of source. Net energy is what the utility actually bills: grid import minus the solar you exported back, measured with sign and per phase. Only the net figure appears on the bill.
| Gross throughput | Net energy | |
|---|---|---|
| What it counts | All energy that flowed | Grid import − solar export (signed, per phase) |
| What it’s for | Operational / load analysis | What the utility bills you on |
| On your bill? | No | Yes |
Why the confusion costs you
When a solar-plus-grid bill looks wrong, the cause is very often a net/gross mismatch — someone compared a gross meter total to a net bill, or added up throughput and expected it to match what was charged. It rarely does, because export credited in one interval and import charged in another only reconcile when you measure them the way the meter does: signed, and per phase.
This is where “we can’t trust our numbers” starts. If the consumption figure in your report isn’t the same quantity the utility billed, every comparison built on it is off — and the reconciliation becomes, in the words of the people who do it, a nightmare.
The Pakistani context
This is no longer a niche problem. Pakistan’s net-metered solar capacity has roughly quadrupled in about two years, the country was the world’s largest solar-panel importer in 2024, and around 95% of net-metered connections are under 25 kW — so a fast-growing base of ordinary commercial and residential sites now sit on net metering and meet this exact distinction.
Net-metering rules are also being actively revised (buyback rates, and how gross versus net is treated). That makes measuring both import and export cleanly — rather than assuming — an advantage, because the classification can follow the meter’s real behaviour as the rules change.
Where BijliBachao fits
WattEY measures grid import and solar export separately, per phase, and reports net energy — the quantity your bill uses — so the number in your dashboard matches the number you are charged on. It classifies a solar-exporting meter from its own telemetry, so the net treatment is applied because the meter actually exports, not because someone flagged it by hand.
The discipline is simple and load-bearing: energy is reported net, never gross-dressed-as-consumption, so the figures can be trusted against the bill.
