Gurgaon First organised a half-day workshop on Net Metering for Growth in Solar: Key Enablers and Action Plan on 12th April, 2016 at National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon.
Net Metering is the “key enabler” to boost growth of solar rooftops. Net Metering (also called solar buy back) is the “key enabler” to boost growth of solar rooftops. It is a billing method that measures the energy produced by a renewable energy system, compares it to the amount of power used and credits the difference to the owner. The net metering regulations from Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) were out in November 2014 and were further fine tuned in July 2015. Gurgaon recently completed net metering of 10kWp Rooftop Grid Connected SPV Power Plant at Rajiv Gandhi Renewable Energy Park in February 2016. This is the first show case net metering project in South Haryana. The objective of the workshop was to understand the “why”, “how” and “what” of net metering with a special focus on Haryana and Gurgaon in particular. Participants in the workshop were Solar Power Manufacturers and Suppliers, Solar EPC players, Solar Consultants, Industry Heads, Metering Companies, Power Utilities, RWAs, Schools, Hospitals, NGOs.
The workshop comprised three sessions 1) The Big Picture 2) Implementation Challenges 3) Facilitator and Future Road Map. Some of the prominent speakers in the workshop were Rakesh Kumar, Director, Solar Energy Corporation of India, Sanjeev Chopra, Superintendent Engineer, DHBVNL, Anand Kumar, CEO, Panchavaktra Power, Pranav Mehta, Chairman, National Solar Energy Federation of India, Sugata Mukherjee, Head-Solar, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd and Dr O S Sastry, Director, National Institute of Solar Energy. Delegates were also given a tour of NISE demonstration facilities.
Rakesh Kumar spelt out the future programmes of MNRE. He said that the total solar potential of the country was 750 GW by using 3 per cent of the total waste land mass. He said that the current solar capacity was 4 GW with Rajasthan as the leading solar state. He said that the country is targeting 40 GW of rooftop solar by 2022.
Sanjeev Chopra from DHBVNL mentioned about the initiatives taken by DHBVNL in facilitating solar in Gurgaon. The organisation is planning to increase the capacity of distribution transformers to facilitate the injection of rooftop solar power. He informed the house that the cost of solar rooftop is expected to drop to Rs 55000 per KW by end of 2016 and the life span will increase to 30 years. DHBVNL has selected three companies Genus, Securemeters and L&T for supplying the net meters. Net meters have bi-directional flow of electricity and costs about Rs 10,000-20,000.
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