Rooftop lag in solar power flop- India fails to reach even half of target, blame on Centre’s policies
Faulty policies prevented India from achieving even half its solar energy target during the last fiscal year, experts say, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s projections of the country as a future global leader in the sector. Many experts blame the lag on the government’s exclusive focus on big-ticket solar plants at the expense of decentralised rooftop solar energy, which can involve even individual households but finds its subsidies withdrawn since 2014. A report by the ministry of new and renewable energy says the country increased its capacity for solar energy production by about 5.5GW (gigawatt) between April 2016 and March 2017, against a target of 12GW. India, whose total solar energy capacity is now about 12GW, has set itself a target of 100GW by 2022, which many consider “over-ambitious”. Overall, the country generated just 11.3GW of grid-connected renewable energy in the 2016-17 financial year, less than 70 per cent of its target of 16.7GW. The ministry report says that apart from wind power and waste-to-energy, India did poorly. “Implementation of rooftop solar is taking place at a much slower pace and it seems unlikely that the government would achieve its 40GW target by 2022,” a report by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and credit rating agency Care Ratings, released at the National Solar Summit 2017, warned. It advocated specific policy initiatives to support rooftop solar power generation, including incentives to attract investments. India’s total rooftop solar installation stood at 1.247GW on December 31 last year, which is just over 3 per cent of the targeted 40GW by 2022. Last month, the Niti Aayog said that rooftop solar energy generation needed to be promoted “between residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors with a target of achieving 20GW capacity by 2019-20”. Harjeet Singh, a global climate change expert associated with Action Aid, said: “Although there has been improvement compared with earlier years, we are falling back on solar mainly because of failures in the solar rooftop sector.” He added: “This is an important sector as it does not require land, which otherwise is a problem while setting up large-scale solar plants.” An analysis by the US-based NGO, World Resource Institute, too has cited “slow progress on solar rooftop installations, poor transmissions and lack of access to finance”. Some experts also blame the coal lobby for the tardy growth of solar energy in coal-rich eastern India. “Clearly, the coal lobby is pushing back solar energy growth in these states as coal is available there,” said solar energy expert Santipada Gon Choudhury. Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal have together installed hardly one per cent of their combined target of achieving a capacity to generate 12GW solar energy by 2022. Bengal power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, however, blamed the state’s poor performance solely on the “Modi government’s abolition of solar energy subsidies, including solar rooftop subsidies, from 2014”. To offset the lag during 2016-17, India will need to increase the rate of solar capacity additions to at least 18GW per year if it is to reach the 100GW goal in 2022. Some experts, however, are optimistic. “India needs to look at its ambitious solar target but things have started to improve,” Sanjay Vashisht of Climate Action Network of South Asia said. “The price of solar energy has fallen below that of coal-based energy, and the future seems bright,” added Chandra Bhushan, a climate expert from the Centre for Science and Environment. India’s overall renewable energy target for 2022 is 175GW, as mentioned in New Delhi’s formal commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change during the Paris climate summit of 2015. Isaiah Wynn Jersey
Work begins on India’s first green energy corridor project
India today conducted the ground-breaking ceremony for its first green energy corridor project with an ultra high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) link over 1,800km with the aim to bring power to 80 million people. The project by state-run Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) is being executed by ABB Group in partnership with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). “This link is a key element of integrating renewable energy with the main grid. It will integrate thermal and wind energy for transmission of power to high consumption centers located thousands of kilometers away, supporting electricity demands in the south and transmitting clean energy to the north, when there is excess wind power,” a statement issued by the ABB said. The mega project is worth over Rs 4,350 crore. The Raigarh-Pugalur 800 kilovolt (kV) ultrahigh-voltage direct current (UHVDC) system aims to connect Raigarh in Central India to Pugalur in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. “The project is a great example of the Make in India initiative where design, engineering, manufacturing of major components and project execution is done locally,” the statement said. According to the statement, HVDC technology has assumed greater significance worldwide to transmit more power over longer distances. Willie Young Womens Jersey
GST may push up cost of solar power projects
The goods and services tax may increase solar energy project costs by 12%-18% and generation costs by 40-50 paise per unit, some industry leaders said, although the government said the new taxation regime won’t have much of an impact on them. However, officials said even if costs increase, it won’t affect project economics because the additional charges can be passed on to customers. “Following GST, solar projects will be about 18% costlier on an average, while cost of generation would go up by around 20%. We have estimated the incidence of GST to be around 23%-25% on various inputs for the segment,” said Ratul Puri, chairman, Hindustan Power Projects. “It would require project developers to go back to banks for additional funding for projects under construction. It might require a minimum of three months to get additional funding, thus delaying projects.” Power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal had said earlier the GST rates would not have much impact on his sectors. Sunil Jain, CEO at Hero Future Energies, said solar modules, which weren’t taxed earlier, will have an 18% levy, while inverters – a major component in solar projects used to convert direct current into alternating current – would now be taxed at 28% instead of zero. Taxes on cement and other materials have been increased, he added. “Our calculation suggests that project costs would go up by at least 16% on an average, since electricity has been excluded from GST and thus would not qualify for input tax credit. This translates into a 40-50 paise per unit rise in generation costs,” he said. “The new regime will result in an increase of 18% in module cost, about 12% in inverter cost and 3% in all service costs – increasing overall project cost by about 12%,” said Vinay Rustagi, managing director, Bridge to India, a consulting firm. “New rates would hit more than 10 GW of ongoing utility scale projects and pose a threat to their viability.” Ashvini Kumar, managing director of Solar Energy Corporation of India, the company that arranges solar project auctions on behalf of governments, doesn’t anticipate any stumbling blocks. “Almost all power purchase agreements include a clause that allows hikes or declines in power generation costs as a result of change in laws – GST in this case – to be passed on to consumers,” Kumar said. “The math behind tariffs quoted by developers in successive auctions thus remains intact since they would be able to pass this on.” Kyle Juszczyk Authentic Jersey
Failure by states to pay for renewable power may trip 2022 target
States are lagging behind in meeting their renewable purchase obligation target which is a key policy instrument to meet the goal of installing 175 gigawatt (GW) of green energy by 2022, stakeholders and experts say. Renewable purchase obligation (RPO) refers to the mandate imposed by law on some entities, mainly power distribution companies, to procure a certain part of their power requirement from renewable sources. Consulting firm Bridge To India, in a recent report, said the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has allocated individual targets for states in line with the eight per cent solar RPO target for the country for March 2022, but says actual performance varies highly across states and enforcement is poor. “Power being a concurrent subject, solar renewable purchase obligation targets are actually administered and regulated at the state level. Unfortunately, because of poor finances of discoms (power distribution companies), the obligations have never been enforced anywhere in India on a consistent basis,” the consulting firm’s Managing Director Vinay Rustagi told IANS. He alleged that the state electricity regulators have also been “very lenient”. The market intelligence provider and research firm Mercom Capital Group also pointed out that India made remarkable progress over the last seven years since the inception of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2010. But around 10 GW of solar installation is “not as impressive as it sounds”. The 2022 target includes 60 GW from wind power, 100 GW from solar power, 10 GW from biomass power and five GW from small-hydro power. India needs to install 90 GW of solar in five years — a rate of 18 GW a year to meet the target. “Due to the lack of enforcement of RPO regulations and the absence of penalties when obligations are not met, many of the state discoms are not complying fully with their RPO targets,” the research firm said, adding if all states had adhered to the RPO targets set by respective state electricity regulatory commissions, 17.7 GW of solar power would have been installed by 2016-17. “In the Indian market, strict compliance and penalising states to push for higher installations levels are not enough. There are a lot of underlying issues that the government needs to address — discom financials, must-run status, transmission and evacuation issues, on-time payments and payment guarantees,” the research firm’s CEO Raj Prabhu told IANS. In general, southern states along with Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have been at the forefront of compliance, whereas Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are lagging far behind the target, Rustagi said. In respect of eastern states, Solar expert S.P. Gon Chaudhuri said lower penetration of renewable energy in the region was one of the major reasons for West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar failing to meet the RPO target. The eastern states, which are coal rich, have not done enough to attract private investors in renewable energy and experts say these states must incentivise renewable energy developers. “West Bengal’s RPO target by 2022 is 5,000 megawatt while its present achievement was only 27 megawatt. An estimated Rs 20,000 crore of investments would be required in the next 4-5 years to meet the state’s target. The state cannot invest such a huge amount. Private participation is the need of the hour,” Chaudhuri told IANS. Rustagi said RPO targets are being scaled up every year; so even if states buy an increasing amount of renewable energy, their relative performance is unlikely to change in the next 3-4 years. According to the Mercom Capital’s research note, as states crawl to fulfil their renewable purchase obligation, cumulative installation figures for solar and wind energy have increased exponentially, but unless compliance improves drastically it will be a challenge to meet the 2022 installation goals.
Tata Power says generation capacity crossed 52,000 million units in FY17
Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power company, today said it has crossed generation of 52,000 million units (MU), collectively from all its power plants in FY17. The company also reported capacity increase by 16 per cent in FY17 as compared to FY16. The company, together with all its subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities, has an installed generation capacity of 10,613 MW (as of May 2017) as compared to 9,180 MW in FY16 from various fuel sources such as thermal (coal, gas and oil), hydroelectric power, renewable energy (wind and solar PV) and waste heat recovery. Tata Power said the company’s consolidated generation through all its subsidiaries stood at 52,512 MU as compared to 47,347 MU in FY16. The company’s Mundra plant reported generation of 27,460 MU, while Maithon plant reported 7,357 MU. Trombay Thermal Power Station generated 6,394 MU, Jojobera Thermal Power Station generated 2,833 MU and Haldia reported generation of 779 MU. Industrial Energy Limited reported generation of 2,457 MU, TPREL generated 556 MU through clean sources of energy (Solar & Wind) and WREPL generated 884 MU. “The Company aims to pursue a well charted growth strategy by demonstrating a high level of commitment towards cleaner sources of generation thus increasing the share of non-fossil fuel based generation output to 35- 40% by 2025,” Ashok Sethi, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Tata Power said. The company said Tata Power continues to be on the lookout for feasible organic and inorganic projects, both greenfield and brownfield, in India and abroad. Ty Montgomery Jersey
Power producers see tariffs coming down under GST regime
Thermal power tariffs are likely to come down due to lower tax rate on coal under the Good and Service Tax regime which is expected to be rolled out from July 1, 2017. The tax rate has been finalised at 5 per cent on coal as against the current tax incidence of 11.69 per cent at the GST Council meeting held in Srinagar today. “The coal-based thermal power rates of different power plants may see a downward trends under the new GST regime as lower tax rate of 5 per cent proposed on it,” an official of an independent power producer said. However, the official said that the quantum or proportion of reduction in the tariff could not be ascertained at this point of time because there is multiple layer of levies and charges on coal as well as on electricity. At present the average price of power of the state-run power giant NTPC Ltd is about Rs 3.20 per unit. Its different plants have different rates of tariff based on fixed cost, levies and other charges. A senior official of a public sector firm explained, “The power tariff would definitely come down but we don’t know to what extend. The new plants have higher rate of tariff because of fixed cost but the older plants rates are lower due negligible fixed cost.” The official further said, “Coal is the main input for a thermal power plant and even a percentage point reduction in tax would mean a lot for power producers. But how much power distributing companies would pass it on to consumer would be seen once the new GST regime is rolled out. Jaquiski Tartt Authentic Jersey
International Solar Alliance to set up $300 bn fund
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is proposing to set up a $300 billion fund to support clean energy projects in member countries over the next 10 years. “The proposal is to strive for 300 billion dollar global fund over 10 year with contributions from the World Bank … and also from Green Climate Fund to leverage $3,000 billion investment from the corporate sector for meeting investment requirement for solar energy programmes and projects in ISA member countries for the next 10 years,” ISA interim Director General Upendra Tripathy told reporters here. The ISA is an alliance of more than 120 countries. The allocation will be notional and will only be backed with 20 per cent of the amount being budgeted. The risk guarantee premium may be 0.8 to 1 per cent and the World Bank may administer it as a commercial project, Tripathy said. “We are thinking of creating over a period of 10 years 300 billion dollar fund. 300 billion dollar is a big number,” he said. “The idea of ISA is not to ask for cheques not to tell them to deposit money. This…is the cheque of assurance, of commitment, that if somebody has taken the assurance and the claim comes then only you have to settle it…this will attract capital into this sector in the ratio of 1:10.” SA was launched in November 30, 2015, as a coalition of solar resource rich countries jointly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande in the presence of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the first day of the Paris Climate Conference or CoP21. “If we put one dollar in insurance 10 dollar will come by way of investment. If we put 300 billion dollar, 3000 billion dollar will come,” he said. India is also examining allocating a line of credit of $1 billion for non-African ISA member countries. It is on the lines of a $2 billion line of credit being operated by the Ministry of External Affairs in Africa for solar projects in countries that have signed and ratified the ISA treaty. The ISA along with France and India is proposing to launch a programme for solar mini grids in the near future. Indian firms have submitted expression of interest for setting up of mini grids equivalent to 78 mw in partnering African countries under India’s soft loan related schemes for the continent. The ISA has also proposed setting up a mechanism to lower the risk involved in financing of solar projects. “The ISA programme, ‘Affordable Finance at Scale’, launched in April 2016 offers as its action point to set the ground for establishment of Common Risk Mitigating Mechanism,” Tripathy said. Riley Reiff Jersey
Do not need lower GST rates to grow solar energy in India: Piyush Goyal
Power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal today said the government does not need lower tax rates to ensure the growth of solar power sector in India. Goyal was talking in the context of 18 per cent rate that has been finalised for solar panels by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. He said GST rates have been brought in to simplify the tax structure. “GST regime is designed to help bring down costs and we are positive it will help reduce corruption and operational difficulties,” Goyal said. The government aims to scale up India’s solar power capacity to 100,000 Megawatt by 2022. This will be part of the 175,000 Mw renewable energy target that the government wants to achieve. The GST Council, in its three-day meeting in Srinagar on Thursday laid out the rates for around 81 per cent of goods. Most of the goods have been kept at or below the 18 per cent tax slab. Coal has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of GST under which the fuel will attract a rate of 5 per cent against 11.7 per cent it used to attract earlier. The new rates under GST are set to roll out from July 1. DJ Chark Jersey
Brighter India: Watch NASA’s map of night-time India highlighted by Piyush Goyal
Power minister Piyush Goyal today highlighted a night-time map of India released by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that shows how large parts of the country are lit against a darker background on the World Map, thanks to the progress of the centre’s village electrification scheme. The map is part of a booklet released here by Goyal in an event today on the status of rural electrification in the country. More than 18,452 villages in India were in darkness even after 68 years of independence forcing them to “live in 17th century lifestyle”, the centre’s information wing Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a twitter update following the event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2015 pledged to complete electrification of these villages within 1,000 days ending 1 May 2018. “The government took this up in mission mode under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY),” PIB said. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs 75,893 crore and more than 13,469 villages were electrified out of the total 18,452 unelectrified villages. The government said this was possible because of the “Power for All” programme signed by all the states leading to rapid urbanization. The DDUGJY scheme includes separation of agricultural feeders, strengthening of the transmission and distribution infrastructure, micro-grid and off-grid distribution network and installing meters for feeders, distribution transformers and consumers. Demaryius Thomas Womens Jersey
Cyber security audits on power transmission communication systems from July
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has said it is mandatory for Regional Power Committees to conduct third party cyber security audits on communication systems of electricity transmission towers from July It said the third party audit can be conducted only by CERT-In (India Computer Emergency Response Team). The commission has come out with directives called the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Communication System for inter-State transmission of electricity) Regulations, 2017 that will be effective from July 1. These regulations provide for planning, implementation, operation and maintenance and upgrade of reliable communication system for all communication requirements including exchange of data for integrated operation of national grid. “Keeping in view the importance of the communication system in a vast meshed network at the National, Regional and State level in India, a need has been felt to specify the regulations regarding Communication System for inter-State transmission of electricity,” CERC said. CERC said a communication infrastructure shall be planned, designed and executed to address the network security needs as per standard specified by Central Electricity Authority and shall be in conformity with the Cyber Security Policy of the Govt. of India, issued from time to time. It said that the National Load Dispatch Centre shall monitor cases of cyber security incidences and discuss them at the regional power committee level and then take necessary actions. According to CERC’s notice, these regulations shall apply to the communication infrastructure to be used for data communication and tele -protection for the power system at national, regional and inter-state level and shall also include the power system at the state level till appropriate regulation on communication is framed by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commissions. “All Users, SLDCs, RLDCs, NLDC, CEA, CTU, STUs, RPCs, REMC, FSP and Power Exchanges shall abide by the principles and procedure as applicable to them in accordance with these regulations,” the regulation said. It said CEA will formulate communication planning criterion and guidelines for development of reliable communication system for power system of India duly considering requisite route redundancy, capacity, as well as requirements of smart grid and cyber security. The CERC further said CEA will constitute and notify a Standing Committee for communication system in power sector. The Standing Committee will be responsible for preparing a perspective plan for communication duly considering optimal utilization of transmission assets for communication purposes having regards to the transmission planning carried out by CEA through Standing Committee on Power System Planning. The committee will also monitor and facilitate timely completion of schemes and projects for improving and augmenting the associated communication system along with transmission system in the power sector. Kemal Ishmael Authentic Jersey