NEPC Resolution 1/2569 (Meeting 176): Residential Solar Rooftop Net-Billing — 2.20 THB/kWh, 500 MW National Cap, 5 kW Per-Meter Limit, ERC Implementing Notification Due June 2026

What changed

NEPC convened Meeting 176 on 29 April 2026 at Phakdi Bodin Building, Government House, chaired by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, and adopted Resolution 1/2569 approving the Citizen Solar Rooftop programme. The resolution sets four operative parameters for a residential solar rooftop net-billing scheme:

"เป้าหมายรับซื้อรวมทั้งประเทศไม่เกิน 500 เมกะวัตต์" (national buyback target not exceeding 500 MW); "ปริมาณไฟฟ้าเสนอขายต่อมิเตอร์ไม่เกิน 5 กิโลวัตต์" (quantity offered for sale per meter not exceeding 5 kW); buyback by the distribution utilities at "อัตรา 2.20 บาท/หน่วย" (2.20 THB/kWh) for a "ระยะเวลารับซื้อ 10 ปี" (10-year buyback period).

The buyback counterparties are the two distribution utilities — MEA for Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan, and PEA for the rest of the country. EGAT, as bulk generation/transmission, is not a residential net-billing counterparty.

NEPC further "มอบหมาย กกพ.ออกระเบียบและประกาศรับซื้อไฟฟ้า…ให้แล้วเสร็จภายในเดือนมิถุนายน 2569" — directing the Energy Regulatory Commission ("ERC") to issue the implementing regulations and buyback notification by end-June 2026. As of the date of this note, the ERC notification has not been published. Statutory authority sits in the Energy Industry Act B.E. 2550 (2007) (in particular the licensing chapter, ss. 47 et seq., and the tariff chapter, ss. 64 et seq., for ERC notification authority over distributed-generation purchases), the National Energy Policy Council Act B.E. 2535 (1992), and the Energy Conservation and Promotion Act B.E. 2535 (1992). [verify]

Resolution 1/2569 implements (one day later) the Cabinet's 28 April 2026 in-principle endorsement of a two-pillar "National Energy Agenda" coupling the Citizen Solar Rooftop programme with a progressive residential tariff capping the first 200 units/month at not more than 3 THB/unit. [verify: NEPC official resolution PDF on eppo.go.th not yet located; cited from PRD release and Thai-government-aligned secondary sources.]

What it replaces

The predecessor instrument is the "Solar for the People" (โซลาร์ภาคประชาชน) programme, launched in 2021 under earlier NEPC resolutions. Its nationwide cap was 90 MW for the entire 10-year window 2564–2573 (2021–2030) — i.e., a long-term aggregate, not an annual quota — at the same 2.20 THB/kWh, 10-year PPA terms in force today. The original 2019 pilot rate of 1.68 THB/unit was widely viewed as uneconomic, and the 2021 step-up to 2.20 THB sustained the programme through to 2026 without unlocking large-scale residential adoption. [verify]

Resolution 1/2569 keeps the headline buyback rate (2.20 THB/kWh) and PPA tenor (10 years) unchanged. The change in scale is structural, not incremental: the 500 MW per-round cap is itself 5.5× the entire 90 MW total committed under the prior 10-year programme, and the Energy Minister has signalled that further 500 MW rounds will follow as quotas fill. The resolution also formally codifies the 5 kW per-meter export limit at policy level, restates the model as Net Billing (rather than the prior "purchase of surplus" framing), and mandates a One-Stop-Service application channel.

Impact

Direct addressees. Thai residential homeowners with grid-connected meters in MEA / PEA franchise areas; rooftop EPC contractors and installers (where supply-chain capacity is the realistic 2026 H2 bottleneck); MEA and PEA on interconnection, metering hardware and PPA execution; and ERC, which carries the end-June 2026 notification deadline.

Net billing — not net metering. The economics matter: under net billing, the household pays the regular progressive retail tariff for grid-imported units (now capped at not more than 3 THB/unit for the first 200 units/month under the 28 April 2026 Cabinet measure, higher for excess) and is paid a separate, lower export rate of 2.20 THB/unit for surplus pushed back. Because 2.20 THB is roughly half of average retail (~4 THB), self-consumption remains more valuable than export — a policy-design choice consistent with the 5 kW per-meter export ceiling.

Time-sensitive deadlines. End-June 2026: ERC must publish the implementing notification. H2 2026: applications expected to open via One-Stop-Service. Once 500 MW is filled, further 500 MW rounds are expected, so the programme could iterate indefinitely.

Key risks. ERC notification slippage past June 2026 is historically common and would push first applications further into late 2026; installer-quality and interconnection-approval throughput is a known operational constraint at scale; and low-voltage feeder capacity can trigger MEA/PEA refusal on grid-stability grounds in clusters of high adoption. The 500 MW residential cap does not share quota with the ~2 GW commercial Direct PPA pilot but competes for the same installer / inverter / metering supply chain.

Cross-link for HK / PRC inbound investors. The 2.20 THB/kWh residential rate does not legally apply to commercial Direct PPAs (effective from January 2026 for BOI-promoted data centres and hyperscalers), but it is now the politically-anchored floor signal any Direct PPA negotiation will reference. The same 28 April Cabinet "National Energy Agenda" also reallocated roughly THB 370 million of "Bypass Gas" funds as a household Ft discount for May–August 2026 and is expected to feed into a parallel ERC progressive industrial tariff design — relevant for HK/PRC EV-cell, electronics, data-centre and battery-swap investors modelling 5–10-year power-cost scenarios. [verify]

Next steps

1. Solar EPC contractors and inverter/metering suppliers map H2 2026 capacity now, recognising that ERC's June 2026 notification will set inverter standards, single- vs three-phase eligibility, and interconnection requirements that drive procurement.
2. Residential applicants in MEA / PEA franchise areas wait for the ERC notification (due end-June 2026) before signing installer contracts, since the 5 kW per-meter limit, allocation mechanism (first-come-first-served is press inference, not in NEPC text [verify]), and meter-type rules are not yet binding.
3. HK / PRC investors negotiating Direct PPA pricing treat 2.20 THB/kWh as the residential floor signal and re-test commercial PPA assumptions against the 28 April 2026 Cabinet framework (progressive tariff cap, Bypass Gas Ft discount, forthcoming industrial-tariff design).
4. MEA and PEA counterparty teams prepare PPA templates and One-Stop-Service intake workflows on the assumption that applications open in H2 2026, with a contingency for ERC slippage.
5. In-house counsel monitoring the file check the EPPO "NEPC Resolutions" index and the ERC portal weekly from June 2026 for the implementing notification, and update internal memos when the EPPO permalink for Meeting 176 is published.

FAQ

Q1. Does the 2.20 THB/kWh rate apply to our commercial rooftop or Direct PPA project?

A1. No. NEPC Resolution 1/2569 covers residential meters only, capped at 5 kW per meter. The ~2 GW Direct PPA pilot for BOI-promoted data centres and hyperscalers is a separate regime with separately negotiated commercial pricing. The residential 2.20 THB rate is, however, the politically-anchored buyback floor that commercial PPA negotiators should expect to be cited as a reference point.

Q2. Is this net metering — does every exported kWh offset an imported kWh at the retail tariff?

A2. No. This is net billing: imports are billed at the residential tariff (first 200 units capped at not more than 3 THB/unit under the parallel 28 April Cabinet measure), exports are paid the separate 2.20 THB/kWh rate. Self-consumption remains more economic than export.

Q3. Can a household install more than 5 kW of panels and only export 5 kW?

A3. NEPC Resolution 1/2569 frames the 5 kW limit as "ปริมาณไฟฟ้าเสนอขายต่อมิเตอร์" — quantity offered for sale per meter, which on its face is an export cap rather than an installed-capacity cap. Some secondary sources describing the prior 2021 scheme refer to installed systems "up to 10 kW", so the precise installed-vs-exportable rule will need to be confirmed in the ERC implementing notification due end-June 2026 [verify].

Q4. When will applications actually open and what is the allocation mechanism?

A4. The ERC implementing notification is due by end-June 2026; first applications via the One-Stop-Service channel are expected in H2 2026. The NEPC resolution does not specify whether allocation will be first-come-first-served, by quota or by regional split — references to FCFS in press coverage are inference, not binding text [verify]. Single- vs three-phase eligibility, inverter standards, and the operating entity for the One-Stop-Service are also pending.

Q5. What if the 500 MW cap is filled — is the programme over?

A5. The Energy Minister has publicly signalled that further 500 MW rounds will open as quotas fill — practical throughput, not the headline cap, is the binding constraint.

Sources

Lexcelsiam Note

This note is based on NEPC Resolution 1/2569 as reported by government-aligned secondary sources (PRD release, ThaiPublica and others) on 29 April 2026; the EPPO official permalink for the Meeting 176 summary had not been published as at the date of this note and the ERC implementing notification (due end-June 2026) is forthcoming. All application-mechanics details — first-come-first-served versus quota allocation, single- versus three-phase eligibility, inverter standards, exact One-Stop-Service operator, and whether the 5 kW per-meter cap is read as installed or exportable — are provisional pending the ERC notification text. Thai-language quotations are reproduced from the resolution as paraphrased in the cited sources; English renderings are working translations and should be checked against the official Thai text once published.