Blogs
Renewables revolution – what should utilities do? Part 3: Survive and succeed
18 December 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
Across the globe, renewables are entering into their second phase: no longer driven by subsidies or even climate concerns, they directly compete with existing fossil fuel based power. So far, few utilities have been able to manage even the first phase successfully. And they seem to be struggling to strategize the second. Why is that the case? Should they oppose or embrace renewables? This...
Weekly Update: SECI allocates 8.75 MW of rooftop PV capacity
17 December 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Last week, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) announced results for third phase of allocations under the rooftop PV projects scheme in select cities. A capacity of 8.75 MW has been allocated across 21 projects in nine cities: Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Palatana, Chandigarh and Gwalior. Capacities allocated to individual project developers range between 250 kWp to...
Renewables revolution – what should utilities do? Part 2: The choice
11 December 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
Across the globe, renewables are entering into their second phase: no longer driven by subsidies or even climate concerns, they directly compete with existing fossil fuel based power. So far, few utilities have been able to manage even the first phase successfully. And they seem to be struggling to strategize the second. Why is that the case? Should they oppose or embrace renewables? This is...
Weekly Update: Solar PV market for diesel abatement in India is preparing for new investments
09 December 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Tata Cleantech Capital recently announced that it may provide funds for as much as INR 2.5 billion (EUR 30m) of renewable and energy-efficiency projects in India (refer). The key new opportunity highlighted has been the parity...
Weekly Update: Power tariffs set to rise as the debt restructuring process for states gets underway
03 December 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
As a part of the central government’s debt restructuring process, four states – Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu – have begun the process of taking over their short term liabilities from the respective power distribution companies (
Renewables revolution – what should utilities do? Part 1: The dilemma
03 December 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
Across the globe, renewables are entering into their second phase: no longer driven by subsidies or even climate concerns, they directly compete with existing fossil fuel based power. So far, few utilities have been able to manage even the first phase successfully. And they seem to be struggling to strategize the second. Why is that the case? Should they oppose or embrace renewables? This is...
Tamil Nadu’s net metering policy – a step forward and two steps back
28 November 2013 | Akhilesh Magal
Tamil Nadu announced its final order on LT connectivity and net metering on 13th November 2013 (click here to view it). The highlights of this order are: Generation Based Incentive (GBI) is applicable for domestic (residential) consumers. This makes the policy an attractive...
Weekly Update: Solar policy space in India becomes active again
26 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
In the last two quarters of every financial year (October – March) for the last couple of years, the solar policy space in India has become alive. This year is no exception and in the last couple of weeks we have seen announcements on phase two of the National Solar Mission (NSM), Kerala’s recently finalized solar policy and new project allocations in Haryana. The pre-bid meeting focused...
Distributed power and the grid – what are the technical challenges?
25 November 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
This blog piece is based on a recent workshop that was part of a joint project by Bridge to India, Prayas Energy Group and IIT Mumbai (National Center for PV Research and Education, NCPRE). Our research results will be published in March 2014. At...
Weekly Update: India’s national policy is betting big on centralized solar power
19 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Average project allocation sizes under India’s National Solar Mission (NSM) have been increasing ever since the mission started. The batch one of phase one allowed a single developer to take up a capacity of up to 5 MW. This was increased to 50 MW in the second round. In the first round of phase two, it has been increased to 100 MW. With this, the direction of the national policy is clear. It...
Pre-bid meeting brings a lot more clarity for the upcoming NSM allocations
19 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
The pre-bid meeting for allocations under batch one of phase two of the NSM was held today and was chaired by officials from the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) and SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India). The first point that was discussed was about the location of projects, its impact on the open access charges and who would be responsible to bear this cost Another key aspect...
Karnataka announces tariff for grid interactive projects: And why these numbers don’t matter for rooftop PV installations
30 October 2013 | Akhilesh Magal
The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), on 10th October 2013 announced the tariffs for grid-connected projects (click here for the order). The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has announced benchmark tariffs for grid connected solar projects. These...
