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The distributed solar photovoltaic project model as opposed to the Solar Park model, mooted a few years ago, has helped save more than ₹500 crore for the Telangana government.
The State, which has already set up about 3,600 MW of solar power projects in the State, thereby becoming the leader in the country along with Karnataka, has managed to do so by taking up the deployment through the distributed solar power project model.
Ajay Mishra, Special Chief Secretary, said, “We have managed to save more than ₹500 crore through the distributed solar PV project model. While ₹50 crore was saved annually in transmission costs by curbing transmission and distribution losses, about ₹450 crore was saved as no separate transmission network was created to evacuate power.”
Smaller projects
“Unlike the solar park model, where projects of larger scale of 500 MW were set up, we offered smaller projects of 50 to 150 MW to developers based on the power demand in a particular district or part of the State,” he said.
G Raghuma Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director of TS Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd, said, “Telangana has more than 25 lakh agriculture pump sets and the demand goes up during the farming season. A demand-supply gap assessment was made across all the districts and based on the gap, tenders were floated and projects implemented.”
Giant strides
The best part of the exercise was that no additional network was created as the existing transmission and distribution networks could be used. Secondly, there was no power loss as the power generated was consumed locally, Reddy explained.
“Telangana barely had 15 MW of solar power capacity when the State was created and now it has a total installed capacity of 3,873 MW, including 3,600 MW of solar and other renewable sources. The plan is to take this up further and add about 1,600 MW by next year,” he added. However, Reddy cautioned about some of the challenges, including the higher cost at which earlier PPAs were signed, intermittent nature of renewable energy sources and lack of round-the-clock reliability. When some of the PPA were signed, the price was at ₹6.90 per unit.
This has now come down to ₹2.40 for solar power and 2.64 for wind energy. Therefore, this poses some operational challenges, he said.
Speaking at RenewX 2019 conference and expo being hosted at Hitex here, Reddy said renewable energy is expected to play a much bigger role and the focus should be on bringing about integration with the other forms of energy.
The expo has more than 100 exhibitors showcasing their products and services in the rapidly growing renewable energy economy, with South India generating half of the country’s renewable energy.
Unlike the solar park model, where projects of larger scale of 500 MW were set up, we offered smaller projects of 50 to 150 MW to developers based on power demand
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