The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) on Monday held public hearing in Chandigarh over the issue of deciding the tariff for selling of solar power here.
During the hearing, the CREST (Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society) gave a presentation regarding their proposal of solar power tariff.
Santosh Kumar, Director UT Science & Technology Department and CEO CREST said, “No objections were received during the hearing and the JERC is likely to issue revised orders regarding the solar power tariffs for Chandigarh.”
He said, “We are expecting that the Commission will fix a tariff of Rs 4 to Rs 6 per unit for CREST to sell solar power to UT Electricity Department.”
“During the hearing, the JERC gave a 15 days time to the public and various associations to submit their objections on Draft Solar Power Tariff — Ground Mounted Grid Connected and Solar Rooftop with Net Metering Regulations — 2014. The JERC had recently invited objections from the general public on the said draft till August 19. Since, few associations could not submit their objections, 15 days time has been given to them for the purpose,” he added. In its last hearing held on August 21 with CREST, the JERC had decided to conduct a public hearing at Chandigarh before finalising the solar tariffs.
Hearing the review petition of CREST on fixing the solar tariffs, the JERC had decided to increase the tariff for selling of solar power. The JERC had decided to review its order dated April 11, when the Commission had fixed a low tariff of Rs 1.13 per unit for CREST to sell solar power to UT Electricity Department, as against Rs 8.75 per unit which the CREST had demanded in a petition filed last year on behalf of the UT Department of Science and Technology.
In the past two years, the CREST has installed 2 MWp solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants on 27 different buildings in Chandigarh and another 3 MWp SPV plant is under installation. The CREST is executing SPV projects on behalf of the UT Department of Science and Technology with financial assistance from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.