The Central and State governments may be riding high on their new-found emphasis on switching to renewable energy, but residents of Delhi are not quite motivated to make the change yet. The only existing subsidy of 30 per cent, which is offered by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), for installing solar photo-voltaic (PV) systems on rooftops has been out of bounds for the Capital’s households ever since it was notified in November last year.
In its notification, the MNRE had doubled the subsidy for domestic consumers from 15 per cent to 30 per cent. Also, it had rejected any incentive to industrial and commercial rooftops. But, despite this, not a single solar-powered household in Delhi has been able to benefit from the scheme, as a result of which the shift has been very slow.
Officials say the reason behind this is ‘confusion’. “While issuing the guidelines, the MNRE released a list of around 400 solar PV system manufacturing companies from whom households could get their units installed and avail the subsidy. But the Ministry told us that the State government should issue its own list of empanelled companies,” said a senior government official.
Now the Delhi government, which is yet to release the much-awaited solar policy, has taken up another project to empanel companies for rooftop solar systems. “There will be around 20 companies on the panel. The move will be beneficial for consumers as we will discover the rates through a competitive process. People won’t be fleeced, there wouldn’t be monopoly and only quality tested units would be used,” said another official. The tendering documents are being made and the complete list will be out not before June.
So far, only about 110 domestic consumers in Delhi have installed solar power systems. As per data with the Delhi government, of these 110 households, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) has 79 households, BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) has 23 and Tata Power (TPDDL) has seven.
Delhi’s total solar power generation is only about 8 MW, of which 3 MW is generated from households. The solar policy for the city, which will give an additional generation-based incentive to consumers, is likely going to be released next week.
