In a bid to boost the solar energy input in the State by encouraging more domestic consumers to install solar rooftop plants, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) proposes to revise the tariff for new Solar Rooftop Photovoltaic (SRTPV) units of 1 kilowatt (kW) to 10kW capacity installed by domestic consumers.
Incidentally, it was only in May this year that the KERC had determined a tariff of ₹3.56 per unit for all SRTPV plants for the life of the projects — 25 years.
In a recent discussion paper inviting feedback from stakeholders, poor response from domestic consumers to install solar rooftop projects has been cited as the reason for redetermining tariffs.
‘Investment not encouraging’
Noting that Karnataka has an installed solar power generation capacity of 5,179 MW in both grid-connected ground-mounted solar photovoltaic and rooftop solar photovoltaic plants as on August 31, the KERC has said that the investment in solar rooftop installations has not been encouraging, as the SRTPV plants installed and commissioned have only 145 MW capacity.
“Further, bulk of these projects pertain to MW-scale rooftop projects, indicating that smaller consumers have not shown much interest in installing SRTPV units, even though the potential for installation of small capacity SRTPV units, especially by domestic consumers, is substantial and their installation benefits both the consumers and the distribution licensees,” the discussion paper said, adding that this is in contrast to the support domestic consumers have shown in the initiative to install solar water heaters.
“One of the reasons for the poor response for installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic plants by domestic consumers may be the low Feed In Tariff (FIT) fixed by the commission as compared to the relatively higher capital cost of smaller capacity SRTPV units,” the paper added.
In the overall scheme of things, the paper also pointed to the revised National Solar Mission targets to be achieved by 2021-22, which mentions 40,000 MW of rooftop solar projects, and Karnataka’s Solar Policy 2014-21, which has set a target of 2,400 MW for grid-connected rooftop generation projects to be achieved by March 2021.
KERC Chairman M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda told The Hindu that the lack of movement in the small-scale project category prompted the commission to propose the move. “The revision will be applicable only to projects up to 10 kW. We are not seeing any movement in that category, so we are trying to encourage them. In the small-scale category, people have higher expenditure for a small capacity. We would like to have feedback to see what potential this category offers,” he said.
