System type · India
These are not three grades of the same product. They solve different problems at very different prices. Decide first whether you are buying a lower bill or backup power — almost every bad rooftop purchase starts by getting that one question wrong.
The short version
If your grid is reasonably reliable and your complaint is the bill, on-grid is the right answer and the cheapest. If outages genuinely disrupt your household, you are shopping for storage, and you should price it as a separate purchase rather than an upgrade.
| On-grid | Hybrid | Off-grid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery | None | Yes | Yes, larger |
| Works in a power cut | No | Yes, chosen circuits | Yes |
| Needs a DISCOM connection | Yes | Yes | No |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Higher | Highest per unit |
| Fits the residential subsidy | Yes | Partly, ask what is covered | Generally no |
| Best for | Cutting the bill | Bill plus backup | Sites the grid does not reach |
Last reviewed
An on-grid or grid-tied system has no battery. Panels feed an inverter, the inverter supplies your home, and any surplus goes out to the grid to be settled under your state's net metering rules. The grid does the job a battery would otherwise do — it absorbs your surplus at midday and supplies you after dark — which is exactly why this configuration is the cheapest way to cut a bill.
The consequence catches people out badly. A grid-tied inverter is required to shut down when it stops sensing the grid. That function, anti-islanding, exists so a rooftop cannot energise a line that a utility crew believes is dead. It is a safety feature, not a fault or a cheap-inverter compromise. So during a power cut your on-grid plant produces nothing, in full sunshine, while your neighbour's diesel generator runs.
If nobody explained that before you paid, that is a failure of the sales conversation, and it is the single most common disappointment we hear about rooftop solar in India.
A hybrid system keeps the grid connection and adds a battery plus an inverter capable of managing both. In an outage it can keep selected circuits alive — typically lights, fans, a few sockets, sometimes a fridge — while still lowering your bill the rest of the time.
The right way to evaluate it is to price the on-grid system first, then treat the difference as the cost of backup and ask what that money buys. Two things belong in that judgement. First, batteries are the one major component with a service life materially shorter than the panels, so a replacement falls due partway through the plant's twenty-odd years and should be in your arithmetic from the start rather than as a surprise in year seven. Second, backup is usually partial by design: a battery sized to run air conditioning through a long evening is a very different purchase from one that keeps the lights and fans on, and vendors are not always explicit about which you are being sold.
It is also worth asking the unglamorous question: would a conventional inverter and battery for a handful of essential circuits give your household the same comfort for considerably less? Sometimes the honest answer is yes, and you are better off with on-grid solar for the bill plus a modest separate backup for the outages.
Off-grid means no utility connection at all. Everything you use must be generated and stored on site, which changes the sizing logic completely: you design for your worst stretch of weather, not your annual average. A week of monsoon cloud is no longer a dip in your savings, it is the week you run out of power. That is why off-grid costs far more per usable unit than either alternative, and why it still involves rationing.
It earns its place where extending the grid is impractical or wildly expensive — remote farms, hill properties, pumping and irrigation sites, telecom installations, forest or border locations. For an ordinary home that already has a working connection, disconnecting to prove independence is an expensive gesture rather than a saving.
The residential scheme is built around grid-connected rooftop plants with net metering. That is why the whole process assumes a DISCOM connection, a bidirectional meter, a feasibility approval and an inspection. Battery storage is generally not what the central assistance is paying for.
So be careful with any quotation that presents a battery system as subsidised. Ask precisely which components the claimed assistance applies to, and confirm the current terms yourself on pmsuryaghar.gov.in rather than taking a brochure's word. If a vendor is vague about which part of a hybrid quote the subsidy touches, that vagueness is the answer. Scheme mechanics are in PM Surya Ghar and how the money is built up in solar subsidy explained.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the inverter you install now. A plain grid-tied string inverter generally cannot accept storage, so retrofitting means replacing it or adding a separate storage system with its own conversion stage — either way, paying twice for the same function.
The practical advice is simple: if there is a realistic chance you will want backup within a few years, say so before the inverter is selected. Choosing a hybrid-capable unit at the outset costs far less than changing your mind afterwards. Equally, do not let a vendor sell you an expensive hybrid inverter "for future batteries" you have no intention of buying.
Start from your bill rather than a product category — the free home check tells you what size makes sense and whether the economics work at all. Then read how rooftop solar works, costs and payback, and financing. If storage is what you are really weighing, the cost side is in solar battery price; if you drive an electric car, see solar for EV charging.
An on-grid system has no battery and works alongside the grid, exporting surplus and using the grid as its balance. An off-grid system has batteries and no grid connection at all, so it must be sized for your worst week rather than your average. A hybrid system has both batteries and a grid connection, so it lowers your bill and keeps chosen circuits running during an outage. The right choice depends on whether you are buying a lower bill or buying backup, because those are different products at different prices.
No, and this surprises people who have just spent lakhs. A grid-tied inverter is required to disconnect when it stops sensing the grid, a safety function called anti-islanding that protects line workers from a roof feeding a dead line. So a standard on-grid plant produces nothing during an outage, even in bright sunshine. If uninterrupted power is your real goal, you need storage, not a bigger array.
The residential scheme is built around grid-connected rooftop plants with net metering, which is why the assistance and the process assume a DISCOM connection, a bidirectional meter and an inspection. Battery storage is generally not what the central assistance is paying for. Treat any quote that presents batteries as subsidised with caution and ask exactly which components the claimed assistance applies to, then verify the current terms on the national portal before you sign.
Meaningfully more, because you are adding a battery bank, a hybrid inverter and usually a separate backup circuit. Batteries are also the one component with a service life materially shorter than the panels, so a replacement falls due partway through the plant's life and belongs in your cost thinking from the start. The honest way to judge it is to price the on-grid system, then look at the additional amount purely as the price of backup and ask whether an inverter and battery for a few essential circuits would deliver the same comfort for less.
Usually not. Off-grid means sizing generation and storage for your worst stretch of weather rather than your annual average, which pushes cost up sharply and still leaves you rationing during a long monsoon spell. It earns its place where extending the grid is impractical or absurdly expensive: remote farms, hill properties, pumping sites, telecom and similar. If you already have a reliable connection, cutting it to prove independence is an expensive gesture.
Sometimes, but not always cheaply, because it depends on whether the inverter you installed can accept storage. A plain grid-tied string inverter generally cannot, so retrofitting means either replacing the inverter or bolting on a separate storage system with its own conversion stage. If there is any realistic chance you will want backup within a few years, say so before the inverter is chosen, since selecting a hybrid-capable unit at the outset costs far less than changing your mind later.
Answer one question honestly: is the problem your bill or your supply? If it is the bill and your grid is reasonably reliable, on-grid with net metering is the right and cheapest answer, and it is also what the residential subsidy is designed around. If outages genuinely disrupt your household or work, hybrid is defensible, priced as bill savings plus a separate purchase called backup. Off-grid is for places the grid does not sensibly reach.
