Residential colonies and commercial establishments could reduce the
burden of their electricity bills if a study currently being carried out
by Tata Power Delhi Distribution finds rooftop solar power generation
projects feasible and the city joins the club of such power producers
that includes Gujarat.
According to estimates, 33 km of Delhi’s total area of 1,483 sq km
can be used for rooftop solar photovoltaic projects to install 2,557 mw
of capacity. However, Delhi’s potential to produce solar power has not
been exploited yet, even as power demand touches new heights almost
every successive summer, which is the most productive season for solar
power installations.
Tata Power Delhi Distribution – which has already installed capacity
of 1.8 mw of rooftop solar power generation at its establishments – has
said that due to dust across the city the performance of the set-up is
about 15%, compared with 20-25% in large-scale projects that have come
up on wasteland in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The power distributor, armed with financial assistance of $459,238
from US Trade and Development Agency, will prepare a business case to
utilise rooftops in the city to procure solar power. It will explore
viability of putting up its own rooftop projects or buying power
generated from the installations owned by residential colonies or bring
in third parties to own and operate these projects. “We have tied up for
1,600 mw of power to meet the peak demand of our close to 14 lakh
consumers in our distribution area for this year.
According to projections, the same will go up by 1,900 mw in 2017 and 2,300 mw in 2020. We wish to utilise 100-200 mw of grid integrated renewables power
projects and meet the balance requirements through the demand side
management,” said Tata Power Delhi CEO Praveer Sinha, adding that the
study would also come up with a business model to partner with residents
of Delhi. Tata Power Delhi is confident that with the gradual decline in cost
of generation, solar power is expected to become a viable source of
electricity soon.
Gujarat has already experimented with solar projects in its capital
city Gandhinagar by installing 5 mw of capacity on the rooftop of
government buildings and plans to replicate this model in five more
cities in the state.
Tata Power Delhi wants to assess rooftop solar power generation in
the light of the existing policy framework and gap between grid tariff
and solar tariff, among other parameters. It will also assess technical aspects of metering the establishments
engaged in both electricity consumption and solar power generation.
Source: Economic Times
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