Draft policy boon to domestic power generation: Experts

The proposed regulation seeks to provide the consumers with the power to choose a system – net metering, net feed-in tariff or gross metering – for supplying the surplus energy generated by the rooftop solar panels into the grid. Moreover, the regulation also offers higher tariffs through time-of-the-day (TOD) solar energy feed-in tariffs ranging from Rs 4.79 per unit to Rs 3.74 per unit depending on the solar generation capacity.

“A proactive initiative to speed up domestic solar installations which are currently accounting for 10 per cent of targeted installed capacity of 3500 MW by 2023. It proposes an option of both net metering or net feed-in tariff as per the choice of the customer,” KE Raghunathan, founder of Solkar Solar Industry Ltd said commenting on the draft regulation. He said the draft regulation proposed a reasonably good price for solar power has been computed with the reality of costs for different capacities.

The energy generated through a solar PV system with a capacity up to 10 KW would fetch Rs 3.99 per unit while a system with a capacity ranging from 501 kW to 999 kW will get Rs 3.12 per unit. Under the TOD, the prosumers – a class of consumers who produce solar energy and also consumes electricity generated from the grid – will be incentivised for installing energy storage with a tariff ranging from Rs 4.79 per unit to Rs 3.74 per unit depending on the capacity.

AD Thirumoorthy, Renewable Energy Consultant said the domestic consumers lost interest in the rooftop solar system when the net feed-in tariff was introduced in the place of the net metering system. The consumer would be paid a levelised tariff of Rs 2.08 per unit under the net feed-in tariff while the energy supplied to the grid would be adjusted in the consumption bill under the net metering system. “Now the commission has reintroduced the net metering as per the Union Power Ministry’s new regulation. However, the Centre’s advisory wanted the net metering to be allowed for all the consumers including HT,” he noted.