Rajasthan's Rooftop Solar Sector

Even though Rajasthan has the third highest solar installation (835 MW) in the country, after Gujarat and Maharashtra, when it comes to rooftops, the number of residential grid-connected solar PV rooftop systems in Gujarat is 4.5 lakh whereas in Rajasthan, it's a mere 25,000. Experts believe this is mainly due to the electricity duty imposed on the consumer and an almost indifferent approach to the rooftop sector in the state, finds Sapna Gopal. Read on to know more...

- Sapna Gopal

The Regulatory Bottlenecks

Subhash Agarwal, owner of a small-scale unit, Asso Minerals in Bandikui, Dausa, Rajasthan, installed two sets of solar panels on his roof (115 kW), but a solar meter was attached to only one of them—reason being that the distribution company (Discom) did not approve installation of a single meter for both plants. He was also told that charges would be as per net metering, but discom officials were unclear about it. “Later, with my conjunction, the export unit was more than what the solar meter reflected. When I approached the discom, they harassed me for 4 months and did not give me a set-up for the export units/excess power that my panels had produced. I told them it was their fault when it came to installing the meter and that if they wanted to calculate the energy produced by both panels, they should have had a combined meter that would reflect the same. They then suggested that I combine both panels and gave me the set-up after a lot of pleading. Furthermore, they charged me electricity duty (ED) taking into account the maximum power generated by my panels. I requested that they should take the average unit produced by rooftop solar (RTS) as the base and then charge ED, but they insisted on taking the maximum,” revealed Subhash.