Renewable energy subsidy for City Beautiful goes south

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, August 14

Recent data presented in the Rajya Sabha has shed light on Chandigarh’s limited access to subsidies for adopting renewable energy sources. The city has only received a total subsidy of Rs 2 crore in the fiscal 2022-23, while no subsidy has been allocated in the subsequent fiscal 2023-24 up to July.

Residents keep waiting

A resident of Sector 33 stated that they got a rooftop solar plant installed on September 10, 2019, but were yet to receive the subsidy. Many other residents echoed similar views.

The detailed breakdown of subsidy allocation and disbursement reveals a noticeable decline in Chandigarh’s subsidy receipt. In previous years, the city had received substantial subsidies, including Rs 11.32 crore in 2014-15, Rs 10.3 crore in 2015-16, and Rs 9.68 crore in 2016-17. However, this trend shifted in the following years, with no subsidy being granted in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

A positive turn was witnessed in 2019-20, as the city secured a subsidy of Rs 5.13 crore. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, the city managed to obtain a subsidy of Rs 85 lakh. Nonetheless, the subsidy allocation has since stagnated, with only Rs 2 crore being allocated in 2022-23.

The information was provided by RK Singh, Minister of New and Renewable Energy, in response to queries raised during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

However, an official of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST), the nodal agency for the installation of solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants on rooftops, said the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had cleared pending subsidy amount worth Rs 3.25 crore. He said the amount would be disbursed this month to 421 house owners.

In order to generate green energy, the ministry had enhanced the subsidy amount from 30 per cent to 40 per cent for the installation of rooftop solar plants up to 3 kW capacity in August 2019.

A resident of Sector 33 stated that they got a rooftop solar plant installed on September 10, 2019, but were yet to receive the subsidy. Many other residents echoed similar views.

The official said the subsidy was stuck with the ministry due to some administrative reasons and the issue had been taken up with them time and again. Finally, the subsidy had been cleared and the same would be released this month, he said. To encourage people to opt for green energy, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) had in January this year gave approval to the installation of rooftop solar power plants on residential buildings free of cost.

Earlier, the UT Administration had made installation of rooftop power plant mandatory for residential houses measuring 500 sq yd and above. Under the new model, the house owner will have to provide nearly 500 sq ft of space for the installation of 5kW solar plant.

A third party (RESCO) will install the plant on consumer’s premises and sell power to the UT Electricity Department.

The excess power will be fed to the grid. The operation and maintenance costs of the system will be borne by RESCO till the end of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) period. Thereafter, these costs will be borne by the consumer till the remaining life of the GCRT. After the completion of the BOT period, the solar plant will be transferred to the consumer free of cost.