Enhanced solar purchase obligation can create 1,000 MW capacity.

The proposal to make Tamil Nadu's electricity distribution company Tangedco to get 2 per cent of the electricity it sells from solar power plants, will result in the creation of solar power capacity of 1,000 MW in the State, calculations show.

The proposal was put up for public comments in the form of ‘draft amendment’ to its RPO rules by the State's electricity regulatory commission, TNERC.

(The State electricity regulatory commissions are mandated with the task of prescribing how much the distribution companies and major consumers in the State have to buy from 'renewable energy' sources, such as wind, solar, hydel and biomass.)

Tangedco has been cleared by TNERC to procure 75,378 million units of electricity in 2014-15 (incidentally, for 'Rs. 26,800 crore) and 78,870 million units in 2015-16 (Rs. 27,834 crore) - including from its own power plants.

Two per cent of these numbers translates to 1,507 MUs in 2014-15 and 1,577 MUs in 2015-16.

Since as a thumb rule, one MW of solar power capacity in Tamil Nadu will generate 1.5 MUs, the State would need a little more than 1,000 MW for Tangedco to buy from.

Recently , the State has about 35 MW of solar power capacity.

It is only a 'draft amendment', but few doubt that it will become an order of the Commission.

This has reinvigorated the solar industry in the whole country - Tamil Nadu is seen as a very promising State for solar, given the State Government’s ambition to create 3,000 MW in a few years.

HBL