DERC to mandate the use of Renewable Energy in Delhi by 2%

To encourage the use of renewable energy in New Delhi, DERC is ready to announce a 2% RPO for the Discoms in New Delhi. DERC is revising the domestic tariff for the financial year 2012-13 . In a recent article of the Times of India the above news was highlighted.
The Obligation will mandate the discoms to procure a mandatory power by 2% through renewable energy sources like sun, geo-thermal, municipal waste etc. Solar power mandated is 0.1 % and rest can be achieved by non-solar sources.
This RPO has been in the pipeline from few years and got delayed to due to the consumer behavior about the costs involved. This move was on the lines of the national policy which demanded for promotion of renewable energy in the state. The cost has also come down and solar energy for example is becoming competitive and has gone down from Rs 18/unit to Rs 8-9/unit.
While the Discoms said that, they are all for renewable energy but procurement of 0.1% solar energy could be a problem depending on the availability, and it should be done in phases. They have urged government to bring out a rooftop policy.
Delhi is of one of the states which do not have a RPO and there was a lot of pressure on the government to announce the RPO for discoms from the new financial year. According to CEA data, Delhi’s registered power consumption was 25,559 million KWh during FY 2010-11, based on this data Delhi will require over 485 million KWh of non-solar renewable power and over 25 million KWh of solar power to fulfill the RPO targets.
Contributed by Chetan Adhikari, Anuj Xess