Government Sanctions Phase-II of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme

In an endeavor to accomplish the ambitious targets of 40 GW cumulative capacity from Rooftop Solar (RTS) Projects by 2022, the government has announced that it has provided its approval for the Phase-II of grid connected rooftop solar programme.

As per the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the programme will be executed with overall central financial support of Rs. 11,814 crores.

Additionally, in this second phase programme, the Central Financial Assistance (CFA) for the residential sector has been reorganized with accessibility of 40 per cent CFA for RTS systems up to 3 kW capacity and 20 percent for RTS system capacity beyond 3 kW and up to 10 kW.

Also, for Group Housing Societies/Residential Welfare Associations (GHS/RAW), the CFA will be restricted to 20 percent for RTS plants for the supply of power to common facilities.

Though, the capacity entitled for CFA for GHS/RAW will be limited to 10 kW per house with maximum total capacity upto 500 kWp, inclusive of RTS put in individual houses in the GHS/RWA.

Furthermore, the CFA under residential category will be provided for 4 GW capacity and the same will be provided on the basis of benchmark cost or tender cost, whichever is lower.

Nevertheless, such kind of financial support will not be accessible for other categories i.e., institutional, educational, social, government, commercial, industrial, etc.

Besides, the government’s emphasis will be on increased involvement of Discoms under this programme and performance based incentives will be provided to them based on the RTS capacity achieved in the financial year over and above the base capacity i.e. cumulative capacity achieved at the end of previous financial year.

Here’re the several categories for incentives available:

• For installed capacity achieved upto 10 per cent over and above of installed base capacity* within a financial year – No incentive will be provided.
• For installed capacity achieved above 10 per cent and up to 15 per cent over and above of installed based capacity* within a financial year – 5 per cent of the applicable cost** for capacity achieved above 10 per cent of the installed base capacity will be provided.
• For installed capacity achieved beyond 15 per cent over and above of installed based capacity* within one financial year – 5 per cent of the applicable cost** for capacity achieved above 10 per cent and up to 15 per cent of the installed base capacity PLUS 10 per cent of the applicable cost**  for capacity achieved beyond 15 per cent of the installed base capacity will be provided.

The CCEA further added that, “Discoms and its local offices shall be the nodal points for the implementation of the programme. Since, Discoms are required to incur additional expenditure for implementation of scheme in terms of additional man-power, creating infrastructure, capacity building, awareness, etc. It is approved to compensate them by providing performance linked incentives.”

“These incentives will be provided to enable Discoms to create an enabling ecosystem for expeditious implementation of RTS programme in their area,” it added.

However, under this scheme, the incentives will be available only for initial capacity addition of 18 GW.

The government also said that these programmes will have substantial environmental impact in terms of CO2 emission saving.  Considering average energy generation of 1.5 million units per MW, it is also expected that addition of 38 GW solar rooftop plants under phase-II by 2022 will result in CO2 emission reduction of about 45.6 tonnes per year.