1. BESCOM Experience in promoting Effective Business Models for Solar Rooftop PV in Indiaby
S.A. Satish Kumar
General Manager , DSM
BESCOM
at The Lalith, New Delhi
on 08/04/2015

2. PREAMBLE
Launching of JNNSM in January 2010 by GOI has opened the flood gate for Solar sector in India.
Karnataka was the first southern state to introduce solar policy - I in 2011.
First state to commission utility scale solar project in India. The state revised its solar policy on in order to add on capacity, and to have energy security and sustainability.
State is blessed with 240 to 300 sunny days with good solar radiation of 5.4 to 6.2 kWh / mts /day.
Assessment of solar potential  - 20 GWp.
Moderated potential - 10 GWp
State target -    3% of total energy consumption.

3. SOLAR POLICY

4. Objectives: Add solar generation of minimum 2000 MW by 2021
To Translate state into an investor friendly state
To encourage PPP in the sector
To promote SRTPV generation and technologies
To encourage decentralized generation and distribution
To promote R&D , Innovations and Skill development in sector.

5. Minimum targets proposed
The Govt. proposes to achieve minimum of 3% of solar energy out of total energy consumed by installing solar plants in a phased manner as below:
Segment
Utility scale projects
350
150
Solar RTPV, grid connectivity
100 -

6. Utility scale grid connected SPV/CSP projects
KREDL is the nodal agency for implementing the following projects.
Category-1: Projects to promote distributed generation by land owning farmers throughout the state (1 to 3 MW).
The capacity allocation for ESCOM is as below:
ESCOMs
% of total annual energy consumption
Capacity fir the period
BESCOM
48%
144 MW
MESCOM 8%
24 MW
HESCOM
20%
60 MW
GESCOM
13%
39 MW
CESC
11%
33 MW

7. Category-2
Projects selected based on competitive bidding process for capacities more than 3 MW.
The minimum project capacity allocation to each solar power product for the grid connected solar power plants will be as follows:
The capacity plant under this category exclude capacity under JNNSM program
Mode of allotment
Technology
Minimum (MW)
Through bidding process
Solar PV 3
Solar Thermal 10

8. Category-3 Project under REC Mechanism.
Under this mechanism solar energy generators can sell electricity to ESCOMs at APPPC (Average Pooled Power Purchase Cost) as determined by KERC.
The minimum and maximum project capacity allocation to teach solar power producer for the grid connected solar power plants will be as follows:
There is no limit for cumulative capacity under this category.
Mode of allotment
Technology
Minimum (MW)
Maximum (MW)
Through ESCOM
Solar PV 1
Based on transmission evacuation capacity
Solar Thermal 10

9. Category-4 Projects under Captive/Group captive generation.
The project developer is allowed to avail RECs in compliance with KERC regulations.
The wheeling and banking charges and cross subsidy are as per KERC guidelines.
The minimum and maximum project capacity allocation to teach solar power producer for the grid connected solar power plants will be as follows:
There is no limit for cumulative capacity under this category.
Mode of allotment
Technology
Minimum (MW)
Maximum (MW)
Through ESCOM
Solar PV
No limit
Based on transmission evacuation capacity
Solar Thermal

10. Category-5 Category - 5 Projects under Independent Power Producers.
Power plants put up for sale of power to third party constitute this category.
Projects under this category are not eligible for availing RECs.
The minimum and maximum project capacity allocation to teach solar power producer for the grid connected solar power plants will be as follows:
There is no limit for cumulative capacity under this category.
Category-5
Mode of allotment
Technology
Minimum (MW)
Maximum (MW)
Through ESCOM
Solar PV 1
Based on transmission evacuation capacity
Solar Thermal 10

11. Category-6 Projects under Bundled power.
State encourages providing solar power bundled with thermal power.
The minimum and maximum project capacity allocation to teach solar power producer for the grid connected solar power plants will be as follows:
Mode of allotment
Technology
Minimum (MW)
Maximum (MW)
Through ESCOM/
HLPAC
Solar PV
Based on bundled tariff as agreed with power purchaser
Solar Thermal

12. Segment - 2:Grid connected solar rooftop projects and metering
The Gok shall promote grid connected solar rooftop projects on public building, domestic, commercial and industrial establishments though net metring and gross metering methods based on tariff orders issued by KERC from time to time.
Net metering: Net metering arrangements are proposed (at multiple voltage levels) to focus on self-consumption of energy generated from rooftop PV. The concept is a combination of captive consumption and exchange of power with the utility.
For SRTPV system gird tied on a net basis, the surplus energy shall be paid as per tariff determined by KERC.
Metering shall be compliance with the CEA.
ESCOMS shall define specific guidelines on the standards for connectivity to network.
MNRE subsidies shall be through the nodal agency.
The Meter reading taken by ESCOMs shall form the basis for commercial settlement.

13. Site requirement & Inter connection voltage
The project site/installation location decided based on roof space and usable area for installation of SRTPV.
Approved export/import meter shall be installed for net metering purpose.
Interconnection voltage:
System Capacity
Voltage Level
Remarks
Upto 5kWp
240 V/Single phase
As per KERC guidelines
5 kWp to 50 kWp
3 phase/415 V
>50kWp
11kV

14. Other Initiatives
To amend building by laws in respect of FAR (Floor Area Ration) in co-ordination with BBMP/local bodies and urban development department to exempt FAR in respect of additional floor area created under solar PV panels with light roofing.
Solar Off-grid and Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG):
To provide access to electricity where transmission and distribution systems are difficult to establish, solar powered off-grid solutions are encouraged.
To encourage options like solar street lights (through local bodies), rooftop SPV systems with battery storage (through ESCOMs and NGO’s) and others in both rural and urban areas for the purpose of reducing dependency on grid.
Focus on Solar powered IP sets: To provide energy security to farmers during day time use of solar power pumps is encouraged, as the energy consume by IP sets is 33% of total energy.

15. Other Initiatives
Solar Park: Utilize waste land for development of solar park and for power generation.
Promotion of distributed generation through small solar parks:
Govt. to promote solar park with area less than 100 acres through PPT model with financial assistance of Rs.1 Cr. in the backward districts.
Promotion of integrated solar parks:
Private participation by providing “plug and play” options for developers.
To create private land banks owned by farmers/group of farmers/ associations for development of solar projects and long terms lease upto 30 years.
Grid tied canal corridor projects:
Deployment of grid connected projects on canal corridor by water resources department on pilot basis subject to purchase of energy by ESCOMs.
Grid connected “solar with other renewable hybrid projects”:
To encourages such projects with minimum 25% of overall generation coming from respective generation sources shall be promoted through this policy.

16. Policy initiatives:
To bring in all HT consumers with connected load of < 50 kVA under SPO (Solar Purchase Obligation).
To amend section 95 of Land Reforms Act for deemed conversion of land for solar projects.
To empower DCs to approve purchase of agricultural lands U/S 109 of Land Reforms Act for development of solar projects.

17. Implementation of Solar Rooftop Program in
BESCOM
Inauguration of SRTPV Program in the state by Energy minister of GoK on

18. GENERAL
Applications are invited form BESCOM consumers of all Residential, commercial, educational institutions, industries establishments others etc.
No limitation on installed solar capacity
Applications invited form minimum 1 kWp to maximum 1 MWp
Applicant can select any system integrator & PV modules.
To purchase BESCOM approved inverters & bi-directional meters only.

19. No. of application received online – 333 , 17MW
Registered at sub division office- 215, 12 MW

20. List of important SRTPV installations Serviced on 06.04.2015
Chinnaswamy Stadium
400 kWp 2
St. Jones college
100 kWp 3
BESCOM, Corporate Office
50 kWp 4
Ramana Marshi school of Blind
34 kWp 5
Smt. Usha Shivakumar
(Energy Minister)
18 kWp 6
NIAS 7
Others (Residential)
72 kWp
Total
774 kWp

21. Return on Investment Calculation
How good is the investment in Solar Rooftop PV System ?
1-KW
2-KW
3-KW
4-KW
5-KW
6-KW
10-KW 1
Plant Capacity
kWp 2 3 4 5 6 10
Energy Generated
kWh/year
1500
3000
4500
6000
7500
9000
15000
Energy Consumed
1200
Energy Exported
300
1800
3300
4800
6300
7800
13800
Savings in BESCOM Bill
Rs./year
4592
Cost of energy exported/year
2868
17208
31548
45888
60228
74568
131928 7
Cumulative Returns per Annum
7460
21800
36140
50480
64820
79160
136520 8
Principal
Rs.
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
540000
900000 9
SIMPLE PAYBACK PERIOD
Years
13.4
9.2
8.3
7.9
7.7
6.8
6.6

22. How Solar Rooftop PV System is a better investment than Fixed Deposit?
1-KW
2-KW
3-KW
4-KW
5-KW
6-KW
10-KW 1
Plant Capacity
kWp 2 3 4 5 6 10
Cumulative Earnings from SRTPVS per Year
Rs./yr
7460
21800
36140
50480
64820
79160
136520
Interest for Fixed deposit % 9
Principal, if deposited in Bank
Rs.
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
540000
900000
Interest if Principal is deposited in 9 % interest per year
9000
18000
27000
36000
45000
48600
81000
Surplus income per year
-1540
3800
9140
14480
19820
30560
55520 7
Additional Earnings in percentage
-17%
21%
34%
40%
44%
63%
69%

23. BASIC DATA 1
Basic capacity for Estimate in KWp
KWp 2
Est. Generation/ KWh/Day
KWh/day 5 3
No of Active Generation Days in a year
Days
300 4
Annual generation per kWp
KWh/Ann
1500
Av. Monthly Domestic energy consumption
KWh
100 6
Annual Consumption
1200 7
Cost of Energy saved in consumption
Rs/ Year
4332 8
Tax % 9
Total annual saving in electricity bill
Rs./year
4591.9 10
Escalation of electricity cost/year 11
Cost of Energy Exported without subsidy
Rs./KWh
9.56 12
Cost of SRTPV Plant per KWp (without subsidy) upto 5 KW
Rs./KWp
100000 13
Cost of SRTPV Plant per KWp (without subsidy) for more than 5 KW
90000 14
Plant Life
Years 20 15
Expected Returns if deposited in Bank

24. Tariff Slab
LT2 a(i)
Full consm
Cons>Gen
2.70 30 81
4.00 70
280
100
5.25
200
6.25
Other Benefits:
1. The plant continues to generate after Payback Period also which leads to substantial financial gain.
2.Generation of renewable energy reduces Greenhouse Gas emission and protects environment

25. Promotion of SRPTV : BESCOM has formed following committee of members   drawn from various field who have expertise domain knowledge in the field of solar.
PROCESS COMMITTEE: To finalize the process right from registration of applications online and up to last mile of grid connectivity.
TECHNICAL COMMITTEE: To finalize standards, specification, safety etc., challenges if any.

26. Major decision taken in process committee:
Facilitating payment gateway for On-line applicants.
Simplifying SRTPV procedure to speedup approval for SRTPV applicants.
Creation of Solar help desk at corporate office level with dedicated landline and -id.
Deletion of On-line applications with 15 days from the date of submission, for those applicants who has not paid application fee at sub-division office.
Arrangement of National level workshop cum seminar in Bangalore to capture large no. of system integrators/ PV module / inverter manufacturers etc.

27. Major decision taken in Technical committee:
Empanelment of Grid tied inverter manufacturers
Possibility of using one time standard approved drawing by CEIG instead of insisting on approved drawings for every SRTPV installations.
Upto 10 kWp, AEE sub-division office is the inspecting authority, above 10 kWp, CEI of Gok is the inspecting authority.
Formulating the general procedure for grid connectivity issues.

28. MOU with GERMI:
Entered in to MOU with GERMI on 12/1/15 for training of technicians in the field of SRTPV.
BESCOM training of its field staff:
BESCOM is conducting 2 days workshop to impact training on SRTPV for all the field engineers of entire state by inviting experts in the field of solar.

29. BESCOM projects under pipeline:
A Tender floated for installation of SRTPV plants on 9 numbers of various BESCOM offices.
Amount put to tender is 2.19 crore for 210 KWp.
AMOUNT PUT TO TENDER IS Rs Crore of 210 kWp capacity
Sl. No.
Location
SRTPV capacity in kWp
LOT 1 1
Chitradurga, C, O & M Zonal office, Chitradurga 20 2
Davanagere, C, O & M Division office, Davengere 22 3
H.S.R. layout C, O & M Division office, Bengaluru 25 4
Chandapura C, O & M Division office, Chandapura 5
Chinthamani C, O & M Division office, Chintamani
TOTAL of LOT-1
114
LOT 2
Jayanagar C, O & M Division office, Bengaluru 37
Banashankari C, O & M S-9 Sub-Division office, Bengaluru
Jalahalli C, O & M C-3 Sub-Division office, Bengaluru 13
Mathikere C, O & M C-6 Sub-Division office, Bengaluru 30
TOTAL of LOT-2
105

30. Surya Raitha Scheme
Govt. has announced “Surya Raitha” a novel scheme on for the welfare of farmers.
The scheme promotes for harnessing solar power by installing SPV panels in the farmers land to run IP sets and feed-in excess energy to grid.
The scheme is proposed for IP sets on the dedicated agriculture feeders.
This is applicable for IP sets < 10 HP.
Promotion of solar pump under net metering concept.
KERC tariff for SRTPV will be adopted.
Net meter will register both import and export energy.
The billing will be settled as per meter readings.
Farmer can avail soft loan from banks and subsidy from MNRE.

31. Pilot: Benefits of the scheme
Reduction in realizing of subsidies by Govt. to ESCOMs.
Reduction in peak load and energy consumption.
Assured quality of power supply to farmers during day time.
Improvement in water table.
Reduction in green gas emissions and global warm issues.
Assured income to the farmers apart from income earned through crops.
Pilot:
To implement “Surya Raitha” scheme a pilot project is proposed.
F-2 feeder from Harobele station (Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagara district) is identified and selected.

32. Scope of pilot
Replace existing 250 IP sets by efficient solar water pumps in the pilot feeder i.e.,:-
180 x 5HP by 180 x 7.2kWp SPV systems
70 x 7.5HP by 70 x 10.8 kWp SPV systems
The PV capacity over size is done by 50% to enable a self sufficient systems that can pay for itself.
To install bi-directional meters for measurement of import and export energy.
To keep feeder on from 6am to 6pm during day time for injecting excess energy to the grid.
Normally 66% of energy is fed to the pump and 33% to the grid.

33. Key players of the project
Karnataka State Government and MNRE:
Project sponsors
Implementing Agency (BESCOM):
Off-taker of feed-in energy and program implementer
System Installer:
Supplier of net metered solar pump solution
Funding Agency:
In the pilot program, the implementing agency (BESCOM) will directly lend to a farmer’s co-operative to enable them in funding the capital cost of the program.

34. Farmers’ Co-operative
Farmers’ co-operative consisting of all beneficiaries on the Harobele F2 feeder will be created.
The role of the co-operative will be:
To work with BESCOM in order to educate and enroll farmers into the program.
To facilitate collection of the initial contribution from farmers in conjunction with the implementing agency (BESCOM).
To receive a loan from BESCOM and fund the program.
To monitor farmer compliance with the program and check illegal use/activity.
To administer enrollment of new pumps into the program.
To receive on behalf of member farmers, monthly payments from BESCOM for exported energy.
To disburse the same to BESCOM against the loan amount raised to fund the program.
To disburse to individual farmers on generation based incentive.
This function will be automated through the use of an ESCROW structure and the co-operative will only perform a figurative role.

35. The breakup cost is as below:
Particulars
5 HP capacity per IP set
7.5 HP capacity per IP set
Weighted average cost per pump
Total cost for 250 pump programme
Pump PV Capacity
4.8
7.2
Oversize factor
1.5x
Total system size (kW)
10.8
Per kW capital cost (Rs/Wp)
102
Total cost of System, Rs.
7,35,000
11,03,000
Number of pumps installed
180 70
GoK Contribution Rs.
58,000
1,69,000
89,000
Rs.2.2 Cr
MNRE contribution Rs.
1,62,000
Rs.4.1 Cr
Interest free loan from BESCOM
4,64,000
7,00,000
5,30,00
Rs.13.3 Cr
Upfront payment by farmer, Rs.
50,000
75,000
57,000
Rs.1.4 Cr
Total
Rs.21 Cr

36. ABSTRACT For 5 HP IP set – 7.35 x 180 = Rs.1323 lakhs
Metering cost – 25,000 x 250= Rs lakhs
Miscellaneous = Rs. 2.5 lakhs
The approximate project cost = Rs. 22 crores
(for 250 IP sets)

37. LOAN REPAYMENT Loan is interest free and term is 15years.
EMI for 5 HP is Rs.2,600/-
7.5 HP is Rs.3,900/-

38. BLOCK DIAGRAM

39. Challenges
No cap on SRTPV generation compared to sanctioned load as per KERC tariff.
When the ratio of solar generation power wrt sanctioned load exceeds a certain load, net meter concept is defeated.
In a complex/building of more than 10 installations, consumer may connect to a meter which is recording minimum units or make it dummy.
Enjoy feed-in tariff instead of net meter tariff of Rs When the ratio of Export v/s Import energy excess more than 90%.
For SRTPV > 50kWp consumer needs to install isolating step up transformer as interconnection point is on 11kV, which increases transformer loss.

40. Inter connection issues when generation is more than 50 KW (For LT consumers).
Space constraints for installation of DTC.
Up gradation of distribution net work.
Power quality concerns of the utilities.
Measurement of harmonics generated and injected in to the grid.
Billing procedure for SRTPV generators.
Settlement of bills and refund issues in case of  export.

41. Major milestones
The Hon’ble CM of State will inaugurate state’s first 1 MW solar power project on Almatti right bank canal.
Country’s first Cricket Stadium to go for SRTPV of 400 kWp.
Surya Raitha scheme is the first pilot project of nature to be launched in the state.
State in the first to go for net metering with attractive tariff of Rs.9.56

42. Way Forward Empanelment of facilitators:
Create awareness among consumers.
Assist in project planning.
Facilitation in installation.
Post installation support.
Web based application and helpline to assist prospective consumers.
Other promotion:
Working with World Bank to promote SRTPV.
Examining ESCROW models for developers to install on rooftop of owners.
Working with financial institutions.
Promotion through Media, Radio, TV etc.,

43. THANK YOU