Tamil Nadu announces final solar energy policy 2019

Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency announced the final Tamil Nadu solar energy policy 2019. The policy intends to include solar energy in demand side management, energy conservation, energy efficiency, smart grids etc.the policy also talks about encouraging public-private partnerships, joint ventures etc. to accelerate solar energy projects, manufacturing facilities, and R&D.

• Tamil Nadu intends to have an installed capacity of 9,000 MW by 2023, of which 40% is intended to come from rooftop solar plants.
• The policy is applicable to both utility & consumer category systems.

Utility category: where the objective is sales of solar energy to a distribution licensee or a third party or self-consumption at a remote location (wheeling). For these systems, the grid connection is through a dedicated gross metering interface.
Consumer category systems: where the objective is self-consumption of solar energy and export of surplus energy to the grid. For these systems, the grid connection is through a consumer service connection of a distribution licensee.

• The tariffs will be based on market-based competitive bidding & net feed-in tariff decided by TNERC time to time.
• TNERC may introduce Time of Day (TOD) solar energy Feed-in tariffs to encourage solar energy producers & solar energy storage operators to feed energy into the grid when the energy demand is high.

Types of solar plant models:

• Upfront ownership: The purchaser of the solar system pays the supplier for the capital cost and takes ownership of the solar system.
• Deferred ownership: The solar system is installed and operated by the supplier. The purchaser makes system performance-based payments to the supplier or leases the system from the supplier. System ownership is transferred to the purchaser on a mutually agreed date or is triggered by a mutually agreed event.

Incentives:

• Rooftop solar plants will be exempted from electricity-tax for two years from the date of the policy.
• Solar energy injected into the grid of the distribution licensee by solar energy producers who have no renewable energy purchase obligations (non-obligated entities), including the solar energy export by non-obligated electricity consumers, can be claimed by the distribution licensee towards the fulfillment of their Renewable Energy Purchase Obligations (RPO).
• The government will provide land for the development of solar system manufacturing components in the state, components like solar cells, inverters, mounting structures, and batteries etc.

Grid connectivity and Energy evacuation:

• For consumer category solar PV systems, the system capacity at the service connection point shall not exceed 100% of the sanctioned load of the service connection.
• For high tension consumers, open access regulations of TNERC will apply, subject to the conditions imposed by SLDC. However, wheeling for less than 1 MW shall not be allowed.

TEDA and TANGEDCO will be the leading government agencies in implementing the new solar policy in the state of Tamil Nadu.