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The revamped solar rooftop scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which also found a mention in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Interim Budget speech will be implemented by the public sector utilities (PSUs) of the power ministry across all states, Union Power Minister R K Singh said here on Friday.
Calling it the second and advanced phase of the existing programme on rooftop solar systems, Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy Singh said the PM Suryodaya Yojana (PMSY) will target those having electricity consumption of fewer than 300 units, which comprises lower and lower middle-class households in the urban areas.
“For this economic stratum, taking a loan for solar or setting up solar on their rooftop is difficult. So, we are increasing the loan component and we are designating our PSUs to implement it,” Singh told reporters.
The subsidy under PMSY would be 60 per cent of the total project cost and the balance would be loan. Singh said the loan would be taken by the PSUs implementing the project.
“The PSU will set up the project and provide free solar electricity to the house as much as they require. The surplus electricity from the house would be sold to the respective power distribution company and proceeds from this sale would be used to pay off the loan,” he said.
The scheme would be overseen by REC Ltd, and other PSUs would be allotted different states where they will implement it. The PSUs under the power ministry are India’s largest power producer, NTPC Ltd, NHPC Ltd, PFC, Power Grid, NEEPCO, SJVN, THDC and Grid India.
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The consumers will own the solar rooftop system once the loan is repaid and then will earn money from the sale of electricity from it, the minister said.
With regards to the budgetary grant, Singh said the amount has not been decided yet but the ministry would get whatever it decides is the “rightful budget for the successful implementation of the scheme.”
PMSY is aimed at installing solar power systems on the roofs of 10 million households. In her Interim Budget speech on Thursday, the finance minister highlighted that the solarisation of 10 million homes would enable consumers to get free electricity.
“Through rooftop solarisation, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity every month. Saving up to Rs 15-18,000 annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies,” Sitharaman said.
Currently, the Centre has a National Rooftop Scheme which provides central financial assistance totalling 40 per cent of the capital cost of a solar rooftop project. This is now being increased to 60 per cent in PMSY and 10 per cent more for projects in the North East states, Singh said.
Rooftop solar has been lagging as compared to the grid-connected ground-mounted solar power projects. Out of the total installed solar power generation capacity of 73 gigawatts (gw) in the country, ground-mounted (large-scale solar power generating units) is 56.9 gw, while grid-connected rooftop solar is 11 gw and off-grid is 2.75 gw. The power ministry officials said there are currently an odd 6.5 lakh household rooftop solar systems across the country.
