Power shortage: TN plans to back energy efficient systems

Chennai, Apr 30: Reeling under a severe power crunch, the

government has drawn up plans to encourage energy efficient systems using solar and other forms of energy in the coming months.

The proposals include provision of subsidised solar pumps, generation based incentive scheme for domestic solar roof tops, besides presenting awards to those who use solar power lights effectively.

The government has proposed to provide "generation based incentive for domestic solar roof-tops for a total maximum capacity of 50 MW during this financial year", the energy department said in its policy note.

Besides this, the government is also mulling providing subsidised solar pumps (86 per cent subsidy - 56 per cent from Ministry of Agriculture and 30 per cent from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) on a pilot basis to select applicants for agriculture service connections.

The Government has also planned to recognise usage of solar roof-tops by presenting the Chief Minister's Awards which would be given annually to different categories of consumers generating maximum solar energy, it said.

A 60kW roof-top solar power plant at the Electricity Board office headquarters here would also be set up for promoting solar energy.

The policy note said government has proposed to distribute one crore CFL lamps at a subsidised cost of Rs 15 per bulb to achieve a savings of around 250MW at a cost of Rs 85 crore.

Energy efficient agricultural pump-sets (having a minimum three star label) would be made mandatory for new connections.

"The Government is also planning to set up a demonstration project by erecting star-rated energy efficient pump sets in a select feeder on pilot basis", it said adding a Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) mechanism would be followed to target energy savings of up to Rs 200 crore.

On the Centre's proposal to achieve 22 GW of solar capacity by 2022 under the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission, the policy note said 22 MW is scheduled to be commissioned in Tamil Nadu in the first phase. "The entire capacity addition would be done using solar PV technology", it said.

For this year, under Chief Minister's Solar powered Green Houses Scheme, the government would add 60,000 solar energy powered green houses at a cost of Rs 180 crore. This scheme was the first such in India with a grid back-up.

On the proposal to energise solar energy powered street lights in 2012-13, the policy note said 20,000 more street lights will be solar powered at a cost of Rs 50 crore.

"This scheme is unique in nature and the first of its kind in India", it said.

According to the Vision Tamil Nadu 2023 document released by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in March, the government expects Rs 4.50 lakh crore investments to be made in the power sector. "The major share of the investments amounting to Rs 2.80 lakh crore will be utilised to augment power generation capacity in the State", the document said.

According to energy department sources, the present installed capacity of the State is 10,364.5 MW. The average availability of power is 8,500 MW. Demand ranges from 11,500 MW-12,500 MW, leaving a shortage of 3,000 MW to 4000 MW.

As part of tapping other energy sources, the State government has planned to increase capacity of wind power to 5000 MW at a rate of 1000 MW per year in the next five years.

PTI