In a setback for Tamil Nadu's solar power plans, the state's electricity tribunal has set aside a government order that mandated heavy power consumers to use solar energy. While consumers are heaving sigh of relief, CNBC-TV18 learns that solar power producers now want alternative steps from the government to boost solar energy.
The Tamil Nadu government's solar policy isn't working out as per plan. According to the policy, heavy power consumers were to meet 6 percent of their total power consumption from solar energy by January 2014.
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But with consumers challenging the policy, the state electricity tribunal, APTEL (Appellate Tribunal for Electricity), has now set aside the government order terming it as "discriminatory". According to analysts, this will be a big relief for IT parks and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state who fall into the category of heavy power users.
Amol Kotwal, associate director, Energy & Power Systems says, “There isn't enough amount of solar generating capacity within the state of TN, the total capacity as of Jan 2014 is roughly round 20-21 MW.”
But not everyone's happy, APTEL's order, which sets aside the TN government's solar order, is also being seen as a setback for the development of solar power in the state. At their end, solar companies now want the government to take alternative steps to help boost solar energy
Pashupathy Gopalan, president and MD, Sunedison says, “There are many ways TN government can work with Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) and increase the renewable portfolio obligation. Also, the TN government can reduce or eliminate the waiving and transmission charges for the solar just like what AP government has done. That will have a significant effect in independent power producers as well as companies setting up solar power plants. There are other ways of making the solar policy possible.”
At present, TN generates only 20 megawatts (MW) of solar power and analysts too agree the government needs to act quickly if it is keen on maintaining its ambitious plans to generate an additional 3,000 MW of solar power by end-2015.
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