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Grid Connected Rooftop Solar in Bangalore through BESCOM
Written By sanjayv - 2 June, 2012
Bangalore BESCOM Renewable Energy Power Supply Need Help Solar Power Rooftop
I attended a meeting this morning at BESCOM that was called by Mr. Manivannan to discuss Grid Tied Rooftop Solar in the BESCOM service area. I was invited following a question posed by me to Mani sir on another forum. Unfortunately, due to some confusion, I was the ONLY citizen attendee. I mostly kept quiet and listened to the discussion and only said a little bit at the end, when asked for my thoughts. There will be future meetings with invitations for interested citizens to participate, and we can also send representation.
Looks like BESCOM had done some efforts to frame rules for this in the past, but nothing much moved. They are getting requests for grid connected solar from citizens and hence there is some interest in this subject now. The meeting drew some conclusions, though I feel they were a bit ad-hoc and not based on sufficient analysis. Hence am intentionally steering clear of the conclusions at this point, because I'd like to intiate a discussion on some of the questions debated in the BESCOM meeting here within PRAJA.
Questions asked were:
(1) Why should BESCOM support grid tied rooftop solar - in other words- what is in it for BESCOM? THe way Mr. manivannan framed it- which would be the best department in BESCOM to own this baby?
(2) If a target were to be set for grid connected capacity within a period of one year - what is a feasible number? Who would be the most plausible customers? - Institutions? Apartments, communities, individual home owners?
(3) What should be the modality of buying power back from the consumer? What feed in tarriff sholuld be offered - if that were to be the approach?
(4) How to popularize the concept and get implementers?
THe broad message from Mr. Manivannan was that he wanted to set a target and identify an owner. Then he wanted the technical heads to put their heads together and work out the technical details, feed in tarriff etc. He celarly stated that he was not interested in the technicalities - that is the domain of his technical experts.
My take from the meeting is that - as the technical experts on how their network functions, it is upto BESCOM to derive the rules. I see the role of the public to push our side, make sure the proposed scheme is consumer friendly without un-necessary red tape, provide input on marketing and motivation. Some of the assumptions being made on these aspects appeared a bit questionable to me (though I did not express this thought out loud right in the first day itself).
It would be good to develop some thoughts on the 4 questions above, within this post for starters. If this picks up steam, we can convert it to a project. Please go ahead and write your thoughts. I will take up the job of occassionally summarizing the discussion and sharpening the discussion.
COMMENTS
a major engineering achievement
sanjayv - 5 June, 2012 - 11:35
IDS, I am impressed you found this story :-) I am not sure if people realize, but running your grid with a potential for 50% contribution from solar and WITH a mandatory feed in tarriff without the whole grid crashing is such an amazing engineering achievement. This is the rosy side of the story. There are impacts on their base load plants and other operators for this choice which probably will come in a different, engineering focussed story. What is impressive is that Germany, thus far, has mostly stuck to their solar choice despite higher electricity prices as a result of the choice.
BTW, verno response from anybody to the questions I posed in the main post. Anybody? Somebody?
silkboard - 28 June, 2012 - 01:40
Sanjay, attempting some answers:
(1) Why should BESCOM support grid tied rooftop solar - in other words- what is in it for BESCOM? THe way Mr. manivannan framed it- which would be the best department in BESCOM to own this baby?
A new department, which will help BESCOM take part in Renewable Energy missions?
(2) If a target were to be set for grid connected capacity within a period of one year - what is a feasible number? Who would be the most plausible customers? - Institutions? Apartments, communities, individual home owners?
500 Communities/Institutions, 5000 individual home owners? Can plan a "group purchase" for 6000 buyers?
(3) What should be the modality of buying power back from the consumer? What feed in tarriff sholuld be offered - if that were to be the approach?
Start with simple "same cost" adjustments? 100 units taken, and 20 units fed back = bill for 80 units. On top of this, there could be annual subsidy, to cover the part cost of EMIs/loans used to purchase Solar equipment.
(4) How to popularize the concept and get implementers?
Awareness events to start with. A demo setup in 4 corners of Bangalore. A website with all details and clarifications on prices and benefits. Summarized 1-pagers that can be handed down along with the BESCOM bills.
raghunandan85 - 9 September, 2012 - 06:03
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article3875240.ece
"The solar energy system that has been installed atop the BMRDA building has a 4.6 kilowatt grid-connected plant and 3 kilowatt of non-grid connected plant that has a battery for storage."
How did BMRDA get permission? I couldnt find more details on the solar installation - type of panel, inverter, certification. Will it be open to viewing by public? If any one has more information, please share.
sanjayv - 26 September, 2012 - 17:11
This ball seems to be finally rolling. Let us start some discussions rolling. Please post questions, thoughts comments from the point of view of BESCOM, technical expert, consumer etc. A meeting will be planned in October. The idea is to get some strong discussion going on the topic and identify key decisions to be made.
Last Weekend, Half of Germany...
idontspam - 5 June, 2012 - 10:20
...Was Running on Solar Power
That's right—half of all of Germany was powered by electricity generated by solar plants. That's incredible. It was also world record-breaking. Germany is pretty much singlehandedly proving that solar can be a major, reliable source of power—even in countries that aren't all that sunny.
Basically, anyone can buy solar panels, set them up, plug them into the grid, and get paid for it.
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