Apathy of officials on net-metering makes solar ambitions of UP a non-starter: MSMEs

Meerut, Apr 12 (KNN) Uttar Pradesh is eyeing big investments in the solar energy sector and has also come out with some big announcements in this context like net metering. But the ground reality is that the industry is battling with the power utilities to convince to allow installation of solar panels on their rooftops.

Uttar Pradesh is looking at Rs 40, 000 crore investment in the renewable energy sector in the next couple of years. The state has already signed up Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with several private and public sector companies for setting up renewable energy plants, especially in the solar energy space.

But, the fact is that the small and medium entrepreneurs in the state, who are ready to invest in solar rooftop installations to meet their power needs and cut down their production costs are not getting any response from the government officials. Surprisingly, the reason being given to them by the senior government officials, chief engineers and CMD level officials is that they are not fully aware of the Net Metering Policy.

The officials, hence, are not confident to take steps in this regard. The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) had come out with a notification on Net Metering on March 20, 2015.

"Not much has been done in this regard. The senior officials, CMD, chief engineers get away by saying that they are not fully aware of the policy," said Naveen Jain, CMD of Muzaffarnagar based Dayachand Engineering.

He said by switching to solar energy, the power cost for the industries could be cut by at least 50%. "This would also help the industries meet their power needs," he added. Jain pointed that the industries had applied for Net Metering on July 25, 2015.

He had also acknowledged the CMD, UPERC about the application, but till date no initiative has been taken by the power watchdog so far.

According to the U.P Rooftop Solar PV Power Plant Policy, "The State shall encourage implementation of the grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic power plants for captive or self-consumption following net energy metering/billing mechanism.

"Further, the UPERC on March 20, 2015, notified the UPERC (Rooftop Solar PV Grid Interactive Systems Gross/ Net Metering) Regulations, 2015. The notification stated that the Regulations shall come into force from the date of notification of the Regulations.

The much talked about Net Metering is the billing arrangement with the utility that determines how one will get credit for any excess renewable electricity delivered to the grid. A 'net meter' tracks both the electricity consumed and the electricity generated by the on-site solar or renewable energy systems. So far, 26 States have notified their regulations to provide Net Metering/Gross metering facilities to support solar rooftops installations. (KNN Bureau)