Approvals, net metering and subsidy: make the waiting visible
Installation takes days; approvals take weeks. A tracker per DISCOM, a subsidy claim pipeline and the equipment rules that cause rejections.
- Days waiting, per project and per DISCOM, is the number to put on the wall.
- One workflow per DISCOM; documents and delays differ.
- Reported PM Surya Ghar subsidy: Rs 30,000/kW for 2 kW plus Rs 18,000 for the third, capped at Rs 78,000. Verify officially.
- Do not install before feasibility is approved.
- Mismatched data across uploads causes rejected claims.
Quick answer
Track each project through fixed external steps with dates, a waiting-on field and days waiting, using a separate workflow for each DISCOM. For scheme projects, treat each subsidy claim as a pipeline and capture serials, photos and consistent customer data at installation. Check equipment compliance before ordering. Use practitioner-reported timelines as a starting guess and your own history as the benchmark.
Why approvals deserve a chapter
The same pattern shows at every scale. In utility-scale, reporting says plants take 12 to 18 months to build while the grid they need takes 36 to 60 (see the market piece). In rooftop, the system is up in days and the project waits for feasibility, inspection and a meter. Money is tied to those steps.
The waiting steps on a rooftop project
The tracker
For every project: DISCOM, consumer number, sanctioned load, dates for each step, documents submitted and rejected, waiting on, next action and owner, and days waiting. Sort by days waiting. Full design in DISCOM approvals tracking.
Subsidy claims
As reported by an EPC-focused vendor guide, PM Surya Ghar pays Rs 30,000 per kW for the first 2 kW and Rs 18,000 for the third, capped at Rs 78,000, to the customer after commissioning. The EPC’s job is clean evidence: DISCOM registration, compliant equipment (ALMM-listed modules; reportedly ALMM List-II cells for projects commissioned on or after 1 June 2026), serials, photos and matching data. Treat each claim as a pipeline. See PM Surya Ghar for EPCs.
Do this first
List every project waiting on an external body with the date the wait began. Then compute your real turnaround per DISCOM from the last ten projects.
Next: procurement, inventory and warranty. Back to start here.
Timeline and subsidy details are from a vendor practitioner guide (SurgePV) and trade press on ALMM (SolarQuarter); utility-scale timelines from Financial Express. All are secondary and reported. The official portal and MNRE govern. The tracker is our model.
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