As part of BSES Rajdhani Power limited's (BRPl) “Solar City Initiative - Solarise Dwarka”, grid connected rooftop solar plants of 506 KW was inaugurared by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday. With the initiative, over residents of 700 flats are expected to be benifited, a senior BSES official said.
The official further said that with this and another project that is expected to be in near future, the total installed grid-connected solar roof top capacity in Dwarka CGHS has crossed 1000 KW or 1 MW across more than 14 societies.
He further said that the solarise Dwarka initiative is being implemented by BRPl in collaboration with “The Energy and Resources Institute” (TERI) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ India) under its Indo-German Solar Partnership project.
The Chief Minister also presented appreciation certificates to societies who have put their green foot forward and joined BSES' Solar City Initiative, he said.
Explaning features of the project, the official said that these housing societies will cumulatively save around 6.5 lakh units of energy and Rs 32 lakh annually. Out of the seven solar plants, five have been installed following the RESCO business model and two through the Capex model, he said.
He further explained that in the RESCO model, the residents didn't have to incur any capital expenditure. “RESCO model entails providing electricity as a service at a cost identified through the competitive bidding which in this case is 2.66/kWh net of generation based incentive and is around 2.50/kWh less than the tariff,” he said.
The bidding was administered by SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) and Indraprastha Power Generation Company limited, he informed.
According to a BSES spokesperson, “BRPl is at the forefront of leading the solar revolution in the city and sees unique benefits of adding distributed generation in its network. “We would like to achieve at least 2.5MW of solar installation within Dwarka. We are convinced of the increased role solar and other green energy would play going forward. We want to lead from the front,” he said.
Residents of housing societies are quite enthusiastic about the solar plant. One of the residents said, “In view of the potential cost savings and environmental benefits, the society members took a unanimous decision for installing rooftop solar”.
He further added that “the business model offered by the installer wherein society doesn't have to invest any amount, led to the quick decision”.