New rooftop tariff not beneficial to consumers: Solar developers

On Monday, TNERC had approved Tangedco’s plea and the new solar energy policy proposal to fix tariff for excess rooftop solar power exported into the grid by low-tension consumers by doing away with the existing method of adjusting with power consumed from the grid. Superintendents of Police to issue suitable instructions to station heads regarding the order. The order further noted that Detec.

In the order, TNERC said the price of purchase of energy exported to the grid would be fixed at 75% of the lowest cost of the pooled cost of power purchase under Renewable Energy Power Purchase Obligations, 2010 or the last feed in tariff determined by the Commission or tariff discovered in the latest bidding (whichever was less). “This price shall be applicable to all rooftop solar plants commissioned in the relevant financial year for the entire life period of the plant which is 25 years,” it said.

“By this tariff order, domestic rooftop solar generators might get only about Rs 2.50 to Rs 3 per unit for the power exported to the grid. The cost of generation of solar for smaller capacity works out to be Rs 5 to 5.50 per unit. With this tariff, there will be no further investments in rooftop solar systems by consumers and the target of 3,600 MW will remain only on paper in Tamil Nadu,” said KE Raghunathan, founder, Solkar Solar Industry Ltd.

Pointing out that setting up of a megawatt-scale project – the project cost is about Rs 40 per watt and whereas the cost of setting up rooftop solar is about Rs 65 per watt, he said that the generation also varies depending on the size of the system capacity. “With this tariff, there will be no further investments in rooftop solar systems by consumers and the target of 3,600 MW will remain only on paper,” he said.

A senior Tangedco official said that excess power supplied to the grid by the rooftop solar plants which are generated at low costs are now being adjusted at higher tariffs than the market rate of solar power. “The concept of the unit-to-unit adjustment was in principle accepted based on solar tariff rates at the time the policy was framed. At the time of implementation of the rooftop solar scheme in 2012, the capital cost was high which has drastically reduced over the years. With the change in market scenario and in the context of encouraging solar rooftop, there needs to be a win-win situation for both the utility and the rooftop solar power generator. The current arrangements lead to severe financial implications,” the official added.

Solar power developers said that HT consumers have been left out from the solar net feed-in. “This affects all HT consumers, including colleges, hospitals, industries and government buildings that have HT service connections. The target of 3,600 MW for the consumer category solar segment cannot be achieved without participation by HT consumers,” Raghunathan said, while also criticising the TNERC for ordering installation of a second energy meter which should be kept next to the current service connection meter, to record gross generation.