3 min readLucknowJul 24, 2014 04:15 AM IST
First published on: Jul 24, 2014 at 04:15 AM IST
Facing flak for the long outages owing to acute shortage of power supply, the Akhilesh Yadav government is now looking to the sun to light up more and more homes in Uttar Pradesh.
As a first step, the government is planning to introduce “Rooftop Solar Policy”. It has also begun the process of promoting establishment of 300 mw solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power projects in the state and has floated the tenders for the same.
During peak hours in summer, Uttar Pradesh faces a shortage of 1000 mw to 3000 mw power. Sources said that the state government is targetting at least 1000mw in solar power generation before the 2017 Assembly elections.
As per the draft “Rooftop Solar Policy” prepared by the government, the target is to ensure generation of at least 20mw of power through rooftop solar segments on private as well as public sector buildings.
While the government will fund the setting up solar PV system on public sector buildings, the private owners of the rooftop solar plants will be provided with the “Net Energy Metering” facility. Under the facility, the owner would be able to sell excess power to the grid, which will be credited into his account. The owner will get a similar amount of power from the grid, in case the energy generated by solar plant is not enough to meet the needs.
A special meter would track this energy exchange to help consumer get uninterrupted power supply. The consumer would have to pay only for any additional energy used from the grid. Also, he will get an incentive for supplying the extra power to the grid.
While the proposed policy is under consideration, the state government has already floated tender for establishing 300 mw of additional Solar (PV) Power Projects though competitive bidding system. The government has invited tenders for establishment of these projects, where a single party can bid for establishment of 5mw to maximum of 100 mw project. In this case, state government would sign a 12-year power purchase agreement 3with the bidder on the pre-defined rates.
The response of the private owners in this case would be known on July 31, when the state government has called the first pre-bid meeting.
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