PSUs to fuel the government's solar rooftop initiative

15 Jan 2024 , 09:13 AM

The government intends to recruit the help of state-run power sector businesses like SJVN, NTPC, NHPC, and Power Grid Corporation in order to encourage home adoption of the rooftop solar initiative.

According to news reports, guidelines that will shortly be released would enable these public sector organisations to pay for the solar systems’ installation and to charge rent for the usage of low-power homes’ rooftops in order to entice potential customers. After homes have used up their share of the electricity, the firms can sell the extra electricity they have.

The businesses will establish subsidiaries in order to carry out the rooftop project plan. A senior government official told ET that ‘roof rent will help lower income houses to move to the rooftop solar projects.’

The action was taken after the rooftop solar program’s central financial aid was increased by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Residential customers must install rooftop solar plants from one of the vendors listed by the local distribution utility in order to qualify for subsidies under current standards.

According to the report, more customers who currently receive electricity at a reduced cost may consider rooftop solar if they had more options and more assistance.

Each state will appoint specific companies to carry out the initiative. A senior government official stated to ET that customers might call a phone number to submit a request to join the project.

The change is anticipated to result in a large rise in installations because cost is a major barrier for the residential market, particularly for homes with loads between one and three kW. At the moment, setting up a rooftop project costs at least Rs 50,000 per kW. When capacity increases, the cost per kW decreases.

The approved business may be permitted to construct twice as much capacity for rooftop solar projects for households with a connected load of 1 kW in order to recoup their investment through the sale of excess power.

It’s also expected that other state-owned businesses may make investments in the market, such as DVC, Energy Efficiency Services, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, and THDC. The program’s nodal agency for deployment will be REC Ltd.

In order to reach its goal of 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity, the government initiated the rooftop solar plan Phase-II in March 2019. It planned to add 4,000 MW of capacity in the residential sector by giving distribution companies (discoms) central financial help and incentives.

The project has not received the anticipated reaction from residential sector consumers thus far, mostly due to the expense and the implementation process, in addition to further installation-related procedural problems. Disposals, which are at the conclusion of the electrical supply chain, are essential to the project’s execution.

According to a survey by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, the two main obstacles affecting customers’ willingness to purchase rooftop solar systems across states are high initial costs and a lack of knowledge about them.

According to the survey, India has 11 GW of installed rooftop solar power, of which only 2.7 GW is used for residential purposes.

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