Solar Battery Payback Calculator Pakistan — Is Storage Worth It Under Net Billing?
Under net billing, a unit you store is worth what it saves at your evening tariff minus the roughly Rs 11 you would have earned exporting it. On a 10 kWh lithium bank bought at Rs 48,000 a kWh with a Rs 50 evening tariff, that is about Rs 312 a day, Rs 9,360 a month, and a payback of about 4.2 years.
Before February 2026 this calculation barely existed: 1:1 net metering made the grid a free battery. That changed, and storage went from a load-shedding convenience to an economic decision.
Rates on this page last reviewed 26 July 2026. Every field below is editable — the defaults are a starting point, not a claim about your bill. We sell no hardware and take no installer commission; see how we verify.
Storing instead of exporting saves ≈ Rs 312/day (Rs 9,360/month).
Battery cost Rs 480,000 → payback ≈ 4.2 years. LiFePO4 lasts 10+ years, so anything under ~5 is a clear yes.
How this calculator works — the actual arithmetic
- Daily saving = battery kWh × 0.8 × (your evening tariff − Rs 11). The 0.8 is usable depth of discharge; the Rs 11 is the net-billing export rate you forgo by storing instead of selling.
- Battery cost = kWh × your Rs-per-kWh figure. The default Rs 48,000 is the midpoint of the Rs 40,000–55,000 band printed on the calculator’s own cost field — an undated market impression for bare modules, not a dated survey. Replace it with the per-kWh figure from your own quote.
- Payback years = battery cost ÷ (daily saving × 365).
- It assumes one full 80% cycle every single day of the year.
Worked example — a 10 kWh lithium bank on a Rs 50 evening tariff
These are the calculator’s defaults; the result box on this page reproduces them.
| Battery size | 10 kWh |
|---|---|
| Battery cost | Rs 48,000/kWh |
| Evening tariff | Rs 50/unit |
| Daily saving | Rs 312 |
|---|---|
| Monthly saving | Rs 9,360 |
| Battery cost | Rs 480,000 |
| Payback | ≈ 4.2 years |
Where these numbers come from
The Rs 11 export rate and the Rs 50–65 import band are the figures in our net metering vs net billing explainer, sourced to NEPRA. The Rs 40,000–55,000 per kWh lithium band is different, and we are going to be exact about what it is: it is the guidance built into the calculator’s own cost field, and it is not backed by a dated dealer survey on this site. Our price index currently holds a handful of hand-entered seed rows and no battery series deep enough to publish, so treat that band as an undated market impression. The battery figures we do publish with dates are installed system prices, and they are higher — see the next paragraph.
The divergence you should act on: that Rs 48,000 is a module price, not an installed price. Our 5 kW system build-up prices 5.12 kWh of lithium storage at Rs 340,000 — about Rs 66,000 per kWh — and the 10 kW build-up prices 10 kWh at Rs 620,000, about Rs 62,000 per kWh. Those numbers include the hybrid inverter upgrade and the wiring. Put the per-kWh figure from your own quote into the field, or the payback will read one to two years shorter than it is: at Rs 62,000/kWh the same example runs to about 5.4 years, not 4.2.
What this calculator does not know
- Whether you actually have surplus solar to fill the battery every day. A battery charged from the grid at Rs 50 and discharged at Rs 50 saves nothing. The payback assumes a full 80% cycle daily, all year — no monsoon week, no travel, no undersized array.
- Degradation. LiFePO4 holds up well, but capacity at year eight is not capacity at year one, and the calculator uses a flat figure throughout.
- Tariff drift. Your evening tariff is a slab, not a constant, and both it and the Rs 11 export rate are policy numbers that have moved repeatedly — the rules changed five times in twelve months up to early 2026.
- The inverter. Storage usually means a hybrid inverter, not just cells. The on-grid vs hybrid decision tree is the right place to start if you are still on-grid.
- Installer competence. Only a small minority of Pakistani solar homes have storage, so the pool of installers with real battery experience is shallow. That risk does not appear in any arithmetic.
Frequently asked
How long does a solar battery take to pay for itself in Pakistan?
Roughly 4 to 5.5 years for a 10 kWh lithium bank, depending on whether you use a module price of about Rs 48,000 per kWh or a turn-key installed price of about Rs 62,000 per kWh. Payback shortens as your evening tariff rises.
How much does a 10 kWh lithium battery cost in Pakistan?
The only dated figure we publish is an installed one: our 10 kW build-up prices 10 kWh at Rs 620,000, about Rs 62,000 per kWh, and the 5 kW build-up implies about Rs 66,000 per kWh. The commonly quoted bare-module band of Rs 40,000–55,000 per kWh is an undated market impression rather than a survey we have run, so budget from the installed figure and treat anything lower as a quote to verify.
Why is storing a unit worth more than exporting it?
Because net billing pays roughly Rs 11 for an exported unit while an imported unit costs Rs 50–65. Every unit you store and use yourself avoids the import price instead of earning the export price — a difference of roughly Rs 39 a unit.
Does the battery pay back if I charge it from the grid?
No. Grid-charging at your own tariff and discharging at the same tariff saves nothing on energy. The payback in this calculator depends entirely on filling the battery with surplus solar you would otherwise have exported at about Rs 11.
Guides that explain the numbers
Products this applies to
Category hub — individual battery pages are still being written
Solar invertersSolis hybrid invertersInverex inverters