How to apply for PM Surya Ghar: 9 steps

You apply for the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana subsidy on the national portal, pmsuryaghar.gov.in, in nine steps: register, apply, wait for the electricity board's feasibility approval, install with a vendor registered on the portal, submit the plant details and apply for net metering, pass the inspection, receive the commissioning certificate, submit your bank details, and receive the subsidy, officially "within 30 days" of the claim; about 15 days on average.^[2] You pay the installer; the government pays you.

The nine steps are the ministry's own list, in the ministry's order. This page explains what each stage means, what the portal asks for, where the official timelines stop and reported practice begins, and what a Delhi applicant must do that a Noida applicant need not. Verde Solaire is a registered PM Surya Ghar vendor in both Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and files the application with customers on the survey visit, so the sequence below is the one we work through every week.

Before you start: eligibility and documents

The published conditions are short. The applicant must be an Indian citizen who owns a house with a suitable roof, has a valid electricity connection and has not taken an earlier solar subsidy.^[2] The connection matters as much as the person: the electricity board checks the application against its own consumer records, so the name on the application should be the name on the bill. If the bill is in a parent's name, apply in that name and use that person's bank account for the subsidy.

Keep the following ready before you open the portal. The portal and your electricity board set the final list, so treat this as the minimum.

• Your latest electricity bill. The consumer number, the sanctioned load and the name of the distribution company are all read from it, and the number you type must match the bill exactly.^{[vs-post-130]}
• Proof that you own the house, such as the sale deed or the property tax receipt, because eligibility rests on owning the roof.
• A photo ID of the applicant, usually Aadhaar, and a passport-size photograph.
• Bank account details and a cancelled cheque, which are uploaded at step 8. The account should be in the applicant's name, because the subsidy is transferred to it.^[2]
• The mobile number linked to the connection. It receives the one-time password at registration and the status messages afterwards.

If you are not sure whether you qualify, the eligibility checker asks seven questions and gives a yes, a no or a conditional answer, with the documents to keep ready.

The nine steps

1. 01

   Register on pmsuryaghar.gov.in

   Choose your state and electricity distribution company, enter the consumer number from the bill and the mobile number linked to the connection, and verify with the one-time password.
2. 02

   Log in and apply for rooftop solar

   Enter the system size in kW and pick the vendor from the registered list for your DISCOM. Verde Solaire is on the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh lists.
3. 03

   Feasibility approval from the DISCOM

   The electricity board checks the sanctioned load and the transformer. In Delhi no feasibility study is needed up to 10 kW on the same supply type.
4. 04

   Installation by the registered vendor

   Panels, inverter, structure, earthing and the protection boxes. Indian-made modules and cells, with the cells on the ALMM List-II, are a condition of the subsidy.
5. 05

   Submit the plant details and apply for net metering

   The vendor uploads the installation photographs, the module and inverter details and the safety certificate, and applies for net metering.
6. 06

   DISCOM inspectionDelhi: 10 days up to 10 kW

   The electricity board inspects the plant and installs the net meter. In Delhi the connection is due within 10 days for systems up to 10 kW.
7. 07

   Commissioning certificate

   Issued on the portal once the meter is in and the inspection is recorded. This is the document that turns the installation into a subsidy claim.
8. 08

   Submit bank details and a cancelled cheque

   Done on your login, in the applicant's name. The subsidy is transferred to this account.
9. 09

   Subsidy creditedOfficially within 30 days

   Officially within 30 days of the claim, about 15 days on average. Trade and news reports describe 30 to 45 days in practice.

What each stage means, and how long it takes

The ministry publishes a timeline for the last step only. For the rest, the honest answer is a mix of regulation, the electricity board's practice and the installer's speed, and it helps to know which of the three you are waiting on.

Registration and application (steps 1 and 2). These are the two steps you can finish in one sitting with the bill in front of you. The portal wants the consumer number exactly as printed and the mobile number the board has on record; a mismatch on either is the most common reason a registration fails. The application then asks for the system size in kW and the vendor. Size it from twelve months of bills, not from the summer peak: the ministry's own guide is 0–150 units a month: 1–2 kW · 150–300 units: 2–3 kW · above 300 units: above 3 kW.^[2] A size above the sanctioned load on the bill needs a load increase, which the electricity board handles. Choose the distribution company with care, because Noida city and Greater Noida are served by different companies and the name at the top of the bill settles it; the net-metering hub lists who serves where.

Feasibility approval (step 3). The electricity board checks that the local network can take the export. In Delhi, no feasibility study is needed up to 10 kW on the same supply type, and the DISCOM handles any load increase or transformer upgrade.^[12] Neither the ministry nor UPERC publishes a deadline for this stage in the sources we hold. Verde Solaire's own 2025 guide put it at a few days,^{[vs-post-130]} and that remains our experience for a standard domestic connection. Applications that stall here usually carry a mismatch: a consumer number typed wrongly, a name that differs from the bill, or a size above the sanctioned load.

Installation (step 4). This is the one step that sits entirely with the vendor. Subsidised systems must meet two rules: both the modules and the cells must be made in India,^[4] and since 1 June 2026 the cells must be on the ALMM List-II, the ministry's approved list of models and manufacturers (ALMM List-II explained). The quote should say how many days the installation will take once material is on site, and every panel and inverter should be named by make and model so that you can check them against the lists.

Plant details and the net-metering application (step 5). The vendor uploads the installation photographs, the module and inverter details and the safety certificate,^{[vs-post-130]} and applies for net metering. Check that the serial numbers uploaded are the ones on your roof; they are what the inspector compares against the plant.

Inspection and the net meter (step 6). This is the stage customers ask about most, because it belongs to the electricity board rather than to you or the vendor. In Delhi the rule is now written down: under DERC's Second Amendment Guidelines of 16 July 2026, the connection is due within 10 days for systems up to 10 kW and 25 days above, with no application fee for domestic systems up to 10 kW.^[13] In Uttar Pradesh, UPERC's regulations let a residential consumer choose net or gross metering, but we have found no published deadline for the meter itself, so the practice of your DISCOM is the timeline. Customers have written about this plainly. Arun Sibal, whose system is at his New Delhi house, wrote: "The only issue was the time taken in installing the net meter from BSES, which was actually not in control of Verde. In fact Verde people always kept me in the loop regarding the net meter status." That is the right expectation. The installer cannot make the board move faster; it can chase, and it can keep you informed.

Commissioning certificate (step 7). Generated on the portal once the meter is in and the inspection is recorded. It converts the installation into a subsidy claim, and it is the date from which the payout clock runs.

Bank details and cancelled cheque (step 8). Submitted on your login, not the vendor's. The account must be in the applicant's name. A wrong account number at this step is the one error that nobody else can catch for you.

Subsidy credited (step 9). The official figure is "within 30 days" of the claim; about 15 days on average.^[2] Trade and news reports describe 30–45 days after verification in practice.

Not yet official. Reported by trade and news sources; the official figure is within 30 days.

Both figures count from the claim, not from the day you paid the advance or the day the panels went up. Add the installation, the inspection and the certificate, and the realistic span from application to money in the bank is a few months, with the electricity board's stages the least predictable part.

Choosing the vendor on the portal

The scheme's rule is that the installer must be a vendor registered on the national portal, and you choose the vendor on pmsuryaghar.gov.in.^[4] The choice is made at step 2 and it decides who moves your file for the rest of the process, so it deserves more care than the size.

Verde Solaire is a registered PM Surya Ghar vendor in both Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, so it appears in the vendor lists for the Delhi distribution companies and for the Uttar Pradesh companies that serve Noida, Ghaziabad and Varanasi. The Delhi Solar Portal links to the vendor list for each DISCOM.^{[delhi-empanelled-vendors]} Check the list yourself before paying an advance, and ask any vendor to show its registration on the portal; the vendor verification guide shows where to look. In August 2026 MNRE deactivated 66 vendors for holding applications without progress,^{[indianpsu-vendors]} which is a reminder that a registered vendor can still be a slow one. If the vendor you chose has gone quiet, the portal help page explains what each status means and how a vendor can be changed.

Who pays whom

You pay the installer the full price, or the bank does if you take a loan, and the government pays the subsidy to you after commissioning and the inspection. The subsidy is never deducted from the invoice, and a quote that shows it as a discount on an amount you cannot verify should be questioned. A proper quote shows three lines: the gross price, the subsidy you will receive, and the net cost to you. The money-flow page walks through the sequence of payments with a worked example, and the advance checklist lists what the agreement should state before any money changes hands.

If you finance the system, the scheme's loan is collateral-free, from nationalised banks, and the subsidy still comes to you, so it can prepay part of the loan. The solar loan page has the current rate and the bank-by-bank terms.

Two Noida customers have described the subsidy side of this from their end. Mr. L. R. Singh, with a 6 kW system, wrote that he "was also able to get solar subsidy in record time because of the follow up of the team of Verde Solaire". Brij Lal Bhardwaj, with 4 kW in Sector 25, wrote that "Verde has also got the subsidy processed for my solar power plant". The follow-up is the part of the service that matters after the panels are up.

Delhi applicants: the state subsidy and GBI

Delhi adds a state subsidy and a generation-based incentive (GBI) on top of the central subsidy, and both are claimed separately. The route in Delhi is this: subsidised systems: apply on the PM Surya Ghar portal and claim the Delhi subsidy and GBI on solar.delhi.gov.in; unsubsidised systems: the DISCOM portal.^[4] The state subsidy is ₹10,000 per kW, capped at ₹30,000 (3 kW), and the GBI is ₹3 per unit for homes up to 3 kW, over 5 years from commissioning, paid monthly against the bill; any excess to the bank account.^[6]

The Delhi subsidy page has the full history and the per-unit arithmetic, and the Delhi net-metering page covers BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna and Tata Power-DDL. The Delhi Cabinet approved a further amendment in September 2026 that had not been notified when we checked; the zero-upfront explainer separates what is approved from what is live.

Noida, Ghaziabad and Varanasi: the Uttar Pradesh top-up

Uttar Pradesh adds ₹15,000 per kW, capped at ₹30,000 per consumer, on top of the central subsidy, under the state's 2022 solar policy. Our sources describe no second portal for it. News reports from September 2026 describe combined central-plus-state totals of ₹45,000, ₹90,000 and ₹1.08 lakh for 1, 2 and 3 kW, paid by direct bank transfer 30–45 days after verification.

Not yet official. Confirmed by news reports in September 2026; UPNEDA's site did not load when we checked, so there is no official 2026 confirmation.

The Uttar Pradesh page covers UPNEDA's role, the district solar cells and which distribution company serves each city.

Installing without the subsidy

Not every household takes the subsidy: some want imported panels, some have had one before, and some have a connection that does not qualify. The route then changes. PM Surya Ghar applicants apply through the national portal; everyone else through the DISCOM or state portal,^[13] and consumers who give up the subsidy are exempt from List-II until 31 March 2027.^[27] Net metering still applies, and the net-metering hub covers the board-by-board process.

Sources and dates

The nine steps, the eligibility conditions and the payout figure are from the ministry's backgrounder of 13 March 2025. The Delhi application route and the state figures are from the BSES Rajdhani FAQ of September 2025 and the Delhi Solar Portal; the net-metering timelines are from DERC's Second Amendment Guidelines of 16 July 2026. Reported payout practice is from Business Today and Aaj Tak, 9 and 10 September 2026. Verde Solaire's registration and its earlier guide are its own published pages. Policy figures were verified on 16 September 2026 and company facts on 18 September 2026. The national portal itself does not render without JavaScript, so its text is cited through the ministry's releases.