White Paper on Inaugural Roundtable for growth in solar in Gurugram March 24 th, 2018 IBIS Hotel, Golf Course Road, Gurugram

Transcription

1 White Paper on Inaugural Roundtable for growth in solar in Gurugram March 24 th, 2018 IBIS Hotel, Golf Course Road, Gurugram

2 Introduction Currently, Haryana has a target of adding 4,142 MW of solar by 2022, of which 1,600 MW is solar rooftops. So far less than 100 MW of solar rooftops have been installed in Haryana, while Gurugram has achieved about 25 MW of solar rooftops, out of which 5 MW has been achieved with subsidies. Gurugram has the potential to become a solar city as it has presence of large buildings, has a conducive policy environment and gets high intensity solar radiation throughout the year thus, making rooftops ideal. Gurugram should also become a solar city as it is the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance, an international alliance of 121 solar countries. Besides, Haryana has a very progressive policy on solar and Gurugram has vast potential for solar growth. The net metering regulations in the state (announced in 2014 and fine-tuned in 2015) ensure that consumers can become power exporters by installing net meters at their premises and export surplus power to the grid and get a discount on power bill. Besides, Haryana is also one of the few states that has mandated every new building on a plot size of 500 square yard or more to install a solar rooftop system with a capacity of at least 1kwp or 5 per cent of sanctioned load, whichever is higher. However, so far solar growth has remained sluggish. The roundtable was meant to identify the key bottlenecks and facilitate action. It was also meant to educate and instil confidence among all stakeholders and identify the missing links and enable on-the-ground action. The Roundtable Proceedings With the view to make Gurugram a solar city, an inaugural roundtable of stakeholders in the solar sector was conducted at IBIS Hotel, Gurugram on March 24, The Roundtable was attended by stakeholders such as HAREDA officials, NGOs, RWA Presidents and officials, solar manufacturers as well as solar EPC players. The keynote address was delivered by Sh. R.K. Singh, Addl. Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram. The Roundtable was moderated by Mr Umesh Gupta, President of DLF RWA II and a member of Udyog Vihar Association. Some of the key speakers at the workshop were Mr Rameshwar Singh, Project Officer, New and Renewable Energy Department, Haryana and HAREDA, KJC Vinod Kumar, Manager, Advisory Services, E&Y, Mr Arjun Srihari, Head-partnerships, 8Minutes as well as Mr R S Rathee, Councillor, MCG. Mr Sanu Kapila, ex-president Nirvana RWA talked about the experience of Nirvana RWA (Sector 50) tendering out of solar project for common areas of the RWA. Wellington RWA in DLF Phase V, Gurugram in brief shared its success story of going solar for 200kWp. All participants gave their suggestions to create a viable action plan for future growth. Mr R K Singh, ADC Gurugram also joined in the meeting and gave a concluding talk. Mrs. Shubhra Puri, Founder, Gurgaon First gave an overview of solar explaining solar cost basics, financial models, national state and Gurugram scenario as well as described some of the concerns for switching to solar. Mr Rameshwar Singh of HAREDA informed the house about the goodness of solar. He too talked about the financial models as well as the cost basics. He also explained the role of HAREDA in promoting solar. Gurugram has about 25 MW of installed solar of which 5 MW is subsidy based. He also informed that there are about 500 net metering projects currently operational in the city. He said that net metering issues are being resolved on a case-to-case basis and on a priority basis, along with assistance of DHBVNL officials. Mr R K Singh, ADC Gurugram talked of having more and more conversations, discussions and awareness workshops in solar. He informed the house that tendering for about 50 MW of solar rooftops for government buildings will soon take off. He also mentioned that all the feedback on policy and other issues would be addressed by the administration. KJC Vinod Kumar of E&Y talked about eradicating the critical barriers that exist in policy, regulatory and financial access and introduction of innovative financing mechanisms such as

3 municipal bonds as well as newer business operational models for solar to thrive. He said that distribution utilities should take a lead in market making of solar. Arjun Srihari of 8minutes also talked about bringing DISCOM into the fold of the agreement to mitigate risk associated with residential PPAs and talked about the need to have a policy on rent-a-roof and open access. He seconded the need for low, long-term and innovative financing models. The Roundtable provided an excellent platform for stakeholders to talk about the issues that are impeding solar growth and suggest remedial measures to ensure faster solar adoption. Roundtable Members Inputs on Issues, Concerns and Way Forward A. Sheer goodness of Solar makes it a here-to-stay technology It was emphasised that solar was the need-of-the-hour green technology given that heavy reliance on fossil fuels is a strain on the economy and environment especially since solar has achieved grid parity. Solar is indeed a vital replacement for polluting and noisy DG sets. It was also discussed that subsidies for solar may not be provided in the future, but solar makes pure economic and environmental sense with or without subsidies. Thus, a programmatic approach to eradicate the critical barriers that exist in policy, regulatory, financial access, processes and awareness need to be taken up. B. More Awareness is the key The potential users felt that all the quality information that is needed to make the solar switch is not available at one stop. When one hears about solar, there is so much technicality involved that one gives up simply out of lack of understanding and follow up. As this is a high priority government initiative, there should be a single window to get the same. There should be clear cut directions on one website and methodology and agencies to implement the same. This should include information on meters, net metering systems and empanelled agencies with some minimum quality guarantee to ensure success. The website should also prominently display success stories. There is a need to educate people to demystify solar, so that solar is accepted just as any other commodity such as the mobile phone. For this, there is a need for more awareness workshops with different stakeholders group to spruce up awareness about solar and alleviate people s risk apprehensions about solar. Some of the stakeholders include RWAs, schools, colleges, business houses, architects and urban planners. Workshops need to address issues such as how to estimate solar potential of a rooftop, go about selecting the right vendor, what are the various structuring models and what is the difference between CAPEX and RESCO model and how to apply for subsidies and net metering and the understanding of the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders including HAREDA, HUDA, DHBVNL and HERC. Also, potential users could meet with those who switched to solar to understand what benefits they were experiencing. Even among our attendees, Wellington RWA and DLF Cybercity has done some excellent work and were eye openers for others. Wellington Estate Condominium Association has put 200kWp solar plant in October 2017 and is experiencing substantial reduction in electricity bills. Solar melas should be held in various colonies in collaboration with private sector players so that a turn key solution is given there itself for those desirous of getting the same implemented. (HAREDA official informed that the annual Solar Mela will be held in May 2018 at Epicentre).

4 There was a suggestion that Gurugram-based solar companies could be asked to do solar awareness workshops as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility. A tie-up with National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) located on the Gurgaon- Faridabad road could be done for field visits to better understand the solar technology. It was discussed that a course on solar education should be made as part of architecture and engineering education. This will inculcate the need for solar in designing cities, colonies and new buildings. The participant from Sushant School of Architecture assured the house that she will take it up with the Institute. Potential consumers felt that since the prices have consistently fallen, and technology consistently improved, there is merit in buying solar in the future, However, industry players say that the main technology improvement expected is in area efficiency of panels, as most of the technology innovation in inverters has already been achieved. More of these myths need to be broken. There is a need for neutral party hand-holding to assess the true potential of the rooftop. Potential customers feel that industry players will put a larger quantity of solar panels than optimally required to maximise sale of panels. One of the industry players noted that empanelment sometimes sets wrong precedence and that technical specifications is blocking new technology from being brought in, for example microinverters, optimiser s etc. Quality of the panels should be the main consideration and no compromises should be made, but under empanelment these issues get compromised. Builders such as DLF Ltd and Unitech Ltd should develop a holistic strategy to adopt solar for both commercial building and residential complexes. (DLF official informed the house that in commercial areas such as Cybercity 455 kwp of solar has been installed). It was also discussed that solar awards should be constituted to those who install solar and are pumping energy back to the grid and contributing to nation building. Also more solar advertising on national media should be undertaken as jan-hit or public interest advertising. There was a suggestion that all government buildings in Gurugram should switch to solar to set up an example. This will also help in popularising solar. C. Solar policies need to be more directed It was discussed that the Haryana Building Code 2016 is very progressive. In Haryana, there is a clear policy for constructions on plot size of 500 meters and above to mandatorily have solar power equivalent to 5% of their requirement or 1kWp whichever is higher. While this is indeed welcome news, there is hardly any adherence to this directive. There should be a mechanism to ensure no one can bypass this provision. HUDA will have to play a role in this. HUDA should have more regulatory oversight to ensure that new buildings are putting the mandatory solar and not DG sets. It may be possible to ensure the same if issuance of Occupation Certificate can be tagged to also checking if this has been done or not. Another suggestion is that this can also be made mandatory for those houses which have been constructed earlier. Besides, roof top solar power should also be made mandatory for large commercial buildings; both private sector and Government. It was also discussed that solar power should be incentivised. It was noted that rebates in property tax for certain period, stamp duty and increased Floor Area Ratio (FAR) could be used to incentivise the switch to solar.

5 Those who do not have a rooftop space should be able to benefit through schemes such as rent-a-rooftop policy. Virtual net metering and community solar needs should be supported by strong policies. D. Financing of solar projects need to be made easy It was felt that financing solar power should be as simple as getting an auto loan. Haryana has very progressive financial organisations like HSIIDC and HFC thus there can be some low interest schemes launched by the Government to fill this gap while getting business for the State FIs. Exploring innovative, long term and low cost financial instruments such as municipal bonds, payment security mechanisms was also discussed. There was a need felt to go beyond the operational business models that involve utilities, state nodal agencies, municipalities and RESCOs in right proportion. Another suggestion was that subsidy could be released directly to the vendor rather than the customer. This will reduce the quoted price to the customer and his perceived cost will be less. E. Removing Net Metering Glitches Some participants complained about glitches in operationalising net metering. Also, non-availability of net metering and DHBVNL s lack of cooperation in ensuring the availability of net meters as well as installation of net metering connection was discussed. Another glitch was that a simple grid connected Solar rooftop PV system does not function if there is a power outage or a grid failure. A solution to this problem is to install a Hybrid model with a battery bank. Technical experts discussed that there was a need to strengthen the grid infrastructure as well if there is import and export of solar power. F. Larger role envisaged for DHBVNL The need for streamlining the processes and bringing procurement and testing of net meters under the scope of DISCOM (DHBVNL) was also suggested like it is done in Delhi. A larger role of DHBVNL was suggested in customer acquisition as well. It was suggested that DISCOM should help in ascertain existing customers interested in switching to solar like it is done in Delhi by private DISCOM companies such as Tata Power DDL & BSES. The need for distribution utilities to take lead to create a market for solar was also discussed. Solar players noted that RWAs are difficult to crack given their politics, complexities and frequent change of presidents and members. A strategy to get the RWAs to sign in for solar for at least their common areas need to be quickly put in place. One suggestion for RWAs to embrace solar was also to bring DISCOM into the fold of the agreement to help reduce the risk associated with residential PPAs. In all, the Roundtable was very successful with everyone voting to make this a quarterly event for review and no course corrections. Mr. R.K. Singh was highly appreciative of the initiative and offered local administration s support in organizing the same on a regular basis. Some of these suggestions can go a long way in making Gurugram a model city to be emulated across the country.