Rooftop solar power provision likely to be revised

The Power Ministry is likely to revise its rooftop solar power provision to ease the process for obtaining new power connections. The existing provision, introduced in 2010, makes it mandatory that if a residential consumer wants to have an electricity connection with more than 2 kilowatts of load, he must set up a rooftop solar panel covering at least 3 per cent of his total sanctioned load. For industrial and commercial consumers, 5 per cent of the total light and fan loads must come from rooftop solar panels. The main objective of the provision was to promote renewable energy, particularly the solar-generated electricity across the country. But the real estate developers have been vigorously opposing the provision saying that this has only increased their costs. In the wake of the opposition, the Power Ministry asked its technical wing Power Cell to prepare an alternative provision to resolve the problem, official sources said. As per the directive, the Power Cell has already prepared a new proposal to address the problem. A Power Cell official said the Power Ministry is examining the proposal. ‘We hope, the government will revise the provision and introduce a new rule for depositing fund for renewable energy provision instead of installing solar panels,’ he added, according to UNB.