On 29 January 2024, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources signed Ministerial Regulation No. 2 of 2024, replacing Regulation 26 of 2021. One of its provisions removes the export-import scheme, the thing usually called net metering. In plain terms, surplus power from a home's solar panels that flows into the PLN grid no longer counts toward reducing the monthly bill. For anyone weighing rooftop solar at home, that single change flips the whole calculation.
For years the main draw of rooftop solar in brochures and neighbourhood chat groups was always the same: install panels, sell the surplus to PLN, watch the meter spin backwards, watch the bill drop. That story is now out of date. So before you spend tens of millions of rupiah, it's worth understanding what that money can actually still buy.
The core change: solar used to be sold as an income source from power exported to PLN. After Regulation 2/2024, surplus fed into the grid no longer reduces your bill. What remains is one real benefit: the power you use yourself during the day becomes free while the sun is productive.
What Changed With Permen ESDM 2/2024
The new rule changes several things at once, and not all of them work against homeowners. The most keenly felt is the removal of the export-import scheme already described. On the other side, the capacity cap on rooftop solar that used to be pegged to a customer's electrical capacity has been dropped, so a low-capacity home is no longer automatically limited in system size the way it once was.
Installation applications are now handled first-in-first-served, following a five-year quota set per PLN region. The cost of swapping in an export-import meter, where one is needed, falls to PLN. For readers who want the official wording, the text of Regulation No. 2 of 2024 is available through the official channels of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, and any installation plan is worth reconfirming with the local PLN unit, since quota availability differs from region to region.
For an ordinary homeowner, the practical message boils down to this. Stop installing panels in the hope of selling a surplus. Count the benefit purely from the electricity you consume yourself during sunlight hours.
Why the Logic Is Now About Daytime
Solar panels only generate while there's sunlight, roughly from morning to late afternoon. Outside those hours, especially at night, the house still draws its power fully from PLN. Because the daytime surplus can no longer be "banked" in the PLN grid for use at night, a panel's value now hinges on how much electricity you can use up exactly while the panel is productive.
This is where each home's usage pattern becomes the deciding factor. A house that's quiet during the day, everyone at the office and the kids at school, can only absorb a little solar. A house with heavy daytime load is the one that gains most. So your consumption profile matters more than the sheer size of your roof.
A few loads that typically show up during the day in a two-story cluster home:
- The upstairs AC running from midday because the second floor genuinely runs hotter, more so at the peak of Bekasi's dry season.
- The fridge and freezer that run around the clock, with part of their load landing in daytime.
- The water pump, washing machine, and iron usually run during the day by whoever's home.
- A computer, monitor, and work devices for anyone spending part of the day working from home.
If most of your daily usage piles up at night, the benefit of rooftop solar will be thin. But if your house is already busy with electricity during the day, the panels work at exactly the right hours.
A More Honest Way to Think About Payback
Rather than chasing a payback figure that looks certain but is actually fragile, it's healthier to understand where the saving comes from. After 2024, rooftop solar savings come from one source only: the kilowatt-hours of daytime power you manage not to draw from PLN. There's no longer any income component from selling a surplus.
So three things govern how fast the money comes back. First, how much of your consumption falls during productive sunlight hours, because only that part can be replaced by panels. Second, the installed system price at the time you buy, which still moves up and down depending on components and labour. Third, the electricity tariff in force, because the pricier PLN power gets, the more valuable each saved kilowatt-hour becomes.
An assumption note: component prices, the right capacity, and payback estimates all shift over time and differ house by house. Treat every calculation here as a way of thinking, not a promise. Before installing, check current prices and rules directly with a licensed installer and your local PLN office.
One thing people often miss: panels need a healthy roof in the right position. A wide two-story roof with little shade from trees or tall buildings next door has better potential. So the condition and orientation of your roof are worth weighing from the start, not after the panels have already been bought.
The North Bekasi 2,200 VA Cluster Home Context
Two-story cluster homes in the North Bekasi area generally carry a 2,200 VA electrical supply, and this is the class most relevant to the discussion. Rumah Emerald 70 at Kingspoint Residence, for example, is a two-story unit with 70 m² of building area on 47.25 m² of land, with the cluster-standard 2,200 VA supply. It sits on Jl. Raya Perjuangan, North Bekasi, about five minutes from Stasiun Bekasi and Summarecon Mall Bekasi, and close to the planned MRT Phase 3 line.
For residents who spend a lot of the day at home, or whose upstairs AC runs steadily through the dry season, a 2,200 VA home like this has a profile worth considering for rooftop solar. The key stays the same: how much daytime power you can shift onto the sun. Before deciding, it helps to know your own electricity-bill pattern first.
These two reads round out the discussion here. If your home's bill keeps spiking during the dry season, our guide on auditing the AC in a 2-story home when prepaid electricity balloons can help cut the load before you even consider panels. For the bigger picture, we also cover the monthly electricity cost of a 2-story home so you have a starting number before weighing a solar investment. This article focuses on the rules and the logic of solar; those two focus on day-to-day electricity use.
Common Questions
Can rooftop solar still sell power back to PLN in 2026?
Not the way it used to. Since Permen ESDM No. 2 of 2024, signed on 29 January 2024 to replace Permen 26 of 2021, the export-import scheme (net metering) has been removed. Surplus power that flows into the PLN grid no longer reduces your bill, so the old motivation of selling power back for income no longer applies. Rooftop solar now makes more sense read as a tool for cutting PLN consumption, not as a source of income.
So when does rooftop solar still make sense?
When most of a home's electricity use happens during the day, while the sun is productive. Power from the panels gets used directly for daytime loads like the AC, the fridge, or the water pump, which slows the PLN meter. The night load is still drawn fully from PLN. The larger the share of daytime consumption you can shift to solar, the more sense it makes to install.
How long is the payback for rooftop solar on a 2-story 2,200 VA home?
There's no fixed figure because the variables are many: component prices that change, the size of your daytime consumption, and the electricity tariff in force. The logic is more useful than a number. Savings only come from daytime power you manage not to draw from PLN, not from selling surplus. The higher your daytime use and the longer the system runs, the faster the money comes back. Before deciding, check current prices and rules with a licensed installer and your local PLN office.
Want to know the Emerald 70 unit's electrical capacity and roof condition?
The Kingspoint team can explain the standard electrical supply, the roof's area and orientation, and the site planning of Rumah Emerald 70 in North Bekasi, so you can weigh the rooftop solar potential with the right data. Ask first, free, no pressure.
Ask the Kingspoint Team