Former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s pet scheme to promote solar energy in households through a subsidy scheme has been left languishing in cold storage since her death in 2016. She had announced the ‘Capital Incentive Scheme’ to promote solar energy among domestic consumers by giving a capital subsidy of ₹20,000 per kilo watt (KW) for grid-connected photo voltaic systems in the State. She had also set a target of 10,000 domestic consumers as per the Government Order of the Energy Department, dated October 18, 2013.
However, since the launch of the programme, the State has not been able to reach even the half-way mark of 5,000. In reply to an RTI petition filed by The Hindu , the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) said 3,647 rooftop solar plants have been installed by domestic consumers between 2014 and 2018.
TEDA, which is the nodal ageny for implementing the project, said the highest number of rooftop solar plants were sold in 2016 - 1,749; 1,011 solar plants in 2015 and 344 in 2014. After the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, sales slid down drastically to 317 in 2017, with only 226 rooftop plants sold till October 2018.
While TEDA does not explain the reason for the drop in the installations of rooftop plants, solar installers have been complaining about the delay in getting net meters and the confusion prevailing in the removal of concession in the electricity tariff enjoyed by domestic users. These have made consumers reluctant to invest in rooftop solar plants.
Domestic consumers and commercial establishments having invested in solar power plants for savings in their electricity bills do not find it viable to reap the benefit.
Pending applications
A solar plant installer not wanting to be named said several applications seeking connection to the grid by the domestic solar power users were pending at various unit offices citing the shortage of net meters.
A senior official of Tangedco while confirming that there is shortage of bi-directional meters said tender has been proposed to be called for very soon. The electricity official said though there is a shortage of net meters, applications for net meters pending till August have been issued for installation.
K.E. Raghunathan, founder of Solkar Solar Industry, said the problem was not about shortage of net meters but in the electricity utility wanting to remove the concessions for domestic solar installers by seeking a separate tariff for domestic solar plants.
