The Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) will now sell electricity produced from solar power projects to the UT Electricity Department.
The Joint Energy Regulatory Commission (JERC) in a meeting held on Tuesday gave a go ahead to CREST proposal to sell power generated from solar energy to the UT Electricity Department.The tariff to sell the electricity generated would be now fixed by the JERC in a week’s time. While talking to The Pioneer, Santosh Kumar, Director Science and Technology Department and CEO CREST said, “The proposal of CREST to sell electricity produced from solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants has been approved by the JERC.”
He said, “CREST and Electricity Department will now enter a 25-year contract. The Department has installed power plants at more than 10 locations. And, from eight SPV power plants, more than 2,80,000 units of electricity was produced last year.”
“During the meeting on Tuesday, the contract was finalised and the JERC is likely to announce tariff to sell the electricity from SPV power plants in a week’s time,” he added. In its petition, the CREST had sought permission from JERC to sell power to the Electricity Department at `8.75 per unit. Recently, following JERC directions, CREST had submitted order of sanction of funds for the projects and report of actual completed cost of the projects. The petition was filed under Sections 61, 62, 86 and 181 of the Electricity Act, 2003, read with the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Goa and Union Territories (procurement of renewable energy) Regulations, 2010, for seeking determination of preferential tariff under net metering for the Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Power project of CREST and for the sale of such power to the Electricity Department of Chandigarh.
In past two years, the solar power plants were installed on several Government buildings in the city. These included Model Central Burail Jail in Sector 45, Paryavaran Bhawan in Sector 19, Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 46, Government College of Commerce and Business Administration in Sector 42, GCG-Sector 11 among other places.
The aim of installation of these SPV power plants is to produce electricity that could be put to use in the buildings, thus cutting down on the power bills. Grid Interactive Solar Voltage Power Plant (GISVPP) has been installed in the Government buildings so as to transfer the extra power supply to the main grid system of Chandigarh. The solar power projects being executed by CREST on behalf of UT Department of Science and Technology are being funded by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).