Solar companies are calling on Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly to intervene to stop the Electricity Ministry’s decision to permanently end Egypt’s net-metering scheme by year-end, Sustainable Energy Development Association (SEDA) Chairman Ayman Haiba told EnterpriseAM. The industry says the move threatens to stall operations at hundreds of companies and derail investments worth EGP bns.

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Utilities regulator Egyptera decided in July to suspend net metering before granting a temporary extension through October, allowing firms to continue connecting projects to the grid. That grace period will now end on 31 December, with the regulator set to cancel all circulars governing net metering, effectively terminating the scheme. Net metering allows small-scale installations at factories and production facilities to settle surplus generation against consumption through the grid.

REMEMBER- Sources told EnterpriseAM earlier this year that freezing approvals for connectingsolar plants to the grid triggered an industry backlash. Solar companies said the move left operations in limbo, with contracts signed by hundreds of companies stalled as firms had already paid for imported equipment and installation work. Industry players warned the lack of a timeline and clarity risked deterring private investment and disrupting factories attempting to switch to cleaner power sources.

Haiba warned that the decision could halt operations at 168 companies licensed by the New and Renewable Energy Authority, while depriving manufacturers of one of the most effective tools to cut costs and comply with export rules tied to carbon footprints. Eliminating grid compensation would push project payback periods from around five years to more than ten, he said, stripping rooftop and distributed solar of its economic case for factories trying to switch to cleaner power.

Net metering is essential because industrial output does not align with daylight hours and production often pauses on weekends, Haiba added. Forcing firms onto pure self-consumption would waste clean power from small and mid-scale plants and deny the grid ready-to-inject capacity — the equivalent of “mns of tons of fuel,” he said. Distributed rooftop systems are also a stabilizer for the national grid and help narrow Egypt’s FX gap by cutting fuel imports.

Cairo Solar Managing Director Hatem Tawfik told EnterpriseAM that factory-scale systems come with a far lighter FX burden. Importing a 10 MW plant costs about USD 1.5 mn, compared with roughly USD 11 mn for the same capacity under utility power purchase agreements, he said. Tawfik said the sector raised the issue with the electricity minister in late October and was surprised by the final decision, adding that companies want a technical explanation and are ready to help fix any grid concerns. Mature markets, he noted, rely on distributed generation alongside large plants to give grids flexibility and create durable jobs.

Any shutdown of net metering would directly hurt Egyptian exporters under Europe’s carbon border tax (CBAM), weaken the country’s competitiveness, and slow Egypt’s push to become a regional clean-energy hub, Haiba said. He called for keeping the scheme in place to support investment, maintain export flows, and reinforce the state’s renewables strategy.

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