Rooftop solar and the case of Bengaluru

Sapna Gopal

Recently, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced that the rooftop solar programme in India had been extended till 31.03.2026 and therefore, subsidy under the programme would be available until the target (under the Programme) is achieved. An official notification added, “All residential consumers are hereby advised not to pay any additional charges to any vendor on account of fee for application on the National Portal or any additional charges for net-metering/testing which are not prescribed by the respective distribution company. In case such charges are demanded by any vendor/agency/person, the same may be intimated to the respective distribution company and to this Ministry.”

Even though there have been huge expectations from the solar sector and the year 2022 was set as the one when the targets would be met---of the 175GW, the share of solar was 100GW (60GW from land based solar and 40GW from the rooftop sector). However, the numbers have not been achieved and the rooftop sector is said to be lagging behind. According to Mercom India's rooftop solar market report Q2 2022, India has only installed approximately 8GW of rooftop solar.

Even though the states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are an exception and have fared well in the rooftop solar segment, this is not the case with most other cities. In the city of Bengaluru for instance, things are far from smooth for those who want to install rooftop solar.

A solar PV/rooftop developer from the city of Bengaluru, who undertakes residential projects in flats and commercial establishments, spoke on the issues the sector is facing in the city. “Some of the pending concerns in this sector, more so in Bengaluru, are: Firstly, distribution companies (discoms), are not ready to implement this scheme, because their income will stop. Secondly, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) is not supportive of solar at all—to get a solar installation set up, they have to be bribed. It is ironical that in order to generate power, a bribe has to be paid. This is the state of things currently,” the developer who did not want to be named, said.

Explaining further, he added---“There is a scheme for a 3KW point, wherein a 3 KW plant will be installed---supposing they quote a sum of Rs 3 lakhs, 50% of which has to be paid initially and the rest after installation. The question is, how many people have got it installed. For a 3 MW order, imagine how much money will have to be paid. And that’s not all. Once they get an order for 3MW, they (Bescom) calls for tenders and whoever quotes a very low price, is awarded the tender and is given the charge of installing the plant. One can only imagine the quality of the installation ---worse, in case something goes wrong, there is no one to take stock of the issue. These are the challenges that people are facing with regard to rooftop solar.”

Currently, the cost of a solar panel is Rs 35 to Rs 36 per Watt. There’s also need for an inverter as there is so much talk about the grid. However, the question is, if there is an on grid installation, it is Bescom who will benefit from it. From the investment that a customer makes, Bescom gets the power and they pay Rs 4.2 paise in Bengaluru---when they (Besom) is supplying power, they charge Rs 7.38 paise. It’s obvious that they are benefitting from this, the developer said.

In such a scenario, it makes more sense to go in for hybrid power, especially in a residential area. Most people are getting 3KW of power and that is enough to meet their requirements--- with hybrid, they can get up to 5KW and the extra power (2KW), can be sold to Bescom--- this way, the consumers can earn Rs 4.2 every month.

Sector experts also lament that the schemes are of no use. They feel there was no need to increase the GST from 5% to 12% in October 2021. Before the pandemic, a solar panel cost Rs 17 (plus taxes), now, it is Rs 35 plus taxes. Earlier, for the duty, solar developers would get credit for a month. Post the pandemic, there is no concept of credit---they have to pay and buy the material.

As far as targets are concerned, in the state of Karnataka, Rs 400 crores was returned for not availing the subsidy. Also, there was a Karnataka Industrial policy from the years 2014 to 2019. It was withdrawn post 2019, but why this was done is not known.

The Lidar experiment

According to Saptak Ghosh, a scientist at The Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), in 2018, an aerial Lidar (fixed to the helicopter) was used to cover 1,076 square km of urban Bengaluru. Each building was digitised and the solar radiation impinging on each rooftop was calculated after considering the shading aspects. The tool showed that there are over 4 lakh rooftops in Bengaluru with a total potential of 3.2GW considering shadow free areas. The tool was also used by various consumers (more than 34,000 use cases) including the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), to set up rooftop solar systems.

Similar exercises, he added, are being conducted in 5 cities of Madhya Pradesh and 6 cities of Chhattisgarh using drones. CSTEP expects to expand the scope to Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka provided the respective discoms show interest. He admits that discoms in general are averse to promoting rooftop solar citing revenue erosion as a reason. “Bescom is no different. Unless a policy framework is developed which allows discoms to compensate for this perceived revenue loss, it is difficult for rooftop solar to take off. State electricity regulatory commissions need to address this concern by hearing the petitions of discoms regarding increasing tariffs and then acing after thorough due diligence. A win-win scenario is needed for increasing solar uptake in the near future,” he suggests.

What needs to be done?

Experts feel that at the industrial level, incentives should be allowed and the subsidy should go directly to the consumer. Also, instead of free power, 1/10th of the money can be given to developers to install solar. Furthermore, they believe that the government also needs to allow industries to use their captive power---they consume about 3,000 units and can generate their own power, say about 1,250 units from solar---for this, they need not take permission from Bescom.

The Bescom official remained unavailable for comment, despite repeated calls.