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The Pradhan Mantri Suryagarh Muft Bijli Yojana, which aims to encourage small capacity solar plants on 10 million roofs to take muft bijli (free electricity) to needy sections of society, has no doubt got off to a good start — within 10 months of launching the scheme, there have been about 7 lakh installations and 25 lakh applications.
However, is it truly muft bijli for the really poor? No, because 30 per cent of the installation cost must be borne by the household. Which poor household can afford that? Indeed, how many poor households even have a proper roof?
The scheme, while well-intentioned, does have a political vein running through it. It was initially believed that public sector companies, such as NTPC and IOC, would chip in to bear the out-of-pocket expenses of the households but that has not happened, perhaps because it is an unwieldy exercise to undertake. If the ruling BJP wants to harvest political gains, the country’s poor should get the benefit of free electricity.
Way forward
Experts, such as solar industry veteran Pashupathy Gopalan, who is Founder and Chairman of Fenice Energy, a solar rooftop installer, have observed that the way forward for the free electricity scheme is through “community solar”.
A community solar (or ‘virtual net metering’) is an ‘open access’ project — but for retail customers. The plant, typically much larger than a household rooftop plant, may be set up anywhere, possibly in a public open space. The electricity generated is injected into the grid and the utility keeps tab. The participating customers get credit in their electricity bills. Typically, a developer owns the plant and bills retail customers for the kWh credited. The developer shares with the discom the details of the retail customers and their respective credit.
It is easy to see why this is more practical. An NTPC or an IOC can pay for, say, a 100 kW solar plant installation in a low-income residential area and name the customers eligible for free electricity. This is similar to a mini grid, except there is no mini grid with cables running from the plant to the end user.
“The community solar model enables households that cannot install rooftop solar panels to benefit from centralised solar energy generation,” notes Gopalan, adding that it can “immediately deliver benefits of PM Suryagarh Yojana to the poor”.
Community solar is popular in the US, Germany, Australia and Japan.
US model
According to the US Department of Energy, as of June 2024, there were 7,870 MW of community solar plants across 44 states. At least 24 states or localities have enacted legislation that either enables or mandates community solar. “Of that, 20 have created provisions to address low-income participation in community solar,” the DoE says.
Why is community solar not popular in India? There are no technical issues — the reason only appears to be regulatory.
Discoms seem to have some concerns, which could be addressed. Gopalan points out that community solar in India is only about two years old. “It will take time for discoms to accept it in principle, and then allow for the process to operationalise it,” Gopalan says.
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