Procedure for rooftop solar installation simplified

New Delhi, Feb 03: Households are free to install rooftop solar plants by themselves or through any vendor of their choice as per simplified procedures issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), PTI reported.

Earlier, residential consumers were required to source the rooftop solar plant from listed vendors only to avail subsidies and other benefits under the Rooftop Solar Programme.

"The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued a simplified procedure for the residential consumers to get the rooftop solar plant installed by themselves or through any vendor of their choice under the Rooftop Solar Programme," a ministry statement said.

According to the new simplified procedure, a national portal for registering applications from the beneficiary, approval thereof and tracking progress will be developed.

There will be a portal in the similar format at the level of the discoms and both the portals will be linked, the ministry stated.

The household beneficiary who wishes to install rooftop solar (RTS) plant under the new mechanism will apply on the national portal.

The beneficiary will be required to submit necessary information, including details of the bank account where the subsidy amount will be transferred.

At the time of application, the beneficiary will be informed about the complete process and subsidy amount that can be availed for installation of the RTS plant.

The application will be forwarded online to the concerned discom for issuance of technical feasibility approval within the next 15 working days.

After the application is transferred to the discom, it will also be displayed on the discom portal.

In order to ensure quality and post installation services, the MNRE will issue standards and specifications for RTS plant and a format of agreement to be executed between beneficiary and the vendor.

The agreement, among other terms and conditions, will have the provision to ensure that the RTS plant installed meets safety and performance standards and that the vendor would maintain the plant for the next 5 years or longer.

The beneficiary has to install its plant within a specified period, otherwise his application will be cancelled and he will have to re-apply for installation of the RTS plant.

Upon installation of RTS plant, the beneficiary will apply for net-metering on the national portal, which will be forwarded online to the concerned discom.

The discom will either procure and install the net-meter or it will advise the beneficiary to procure the net-meter as per prescribed specifications and get it tested from an authorised lab.

After installation of the net-meter, the discom officer will submit a commissioning and inspection report on the national portal, which will also be reflected on the discom portal.

On receiving the inspection report, the subsidy will be released directly in the bank account of the beneficiary by the discom.

The whole process will be monitored and a grievance redressal mechanism will be put in place, the statement added.

It is expected that the national portal will be developed in about six to eight weeks. Till the national portal comes into operation, the existing procedure for availing subsidy for installation of rooftop solar plant through discoms will continue and this will be the only authorised procedure to avail subsidy from MNRE, it added.

After the national portal is set up, the beneficiary will have the choice of installing RTS availing either of the options.

The ministry also asked the public not to trust any misleading/spurious information being published on websites/social media, particularly asking for registration fee or other payment for getting the subsidy for installation of rooftop solar plants.

Authentic information in this regard will be made available on the official website of the ministry (www.mnre.gov.in) or on SPIN portal (www.solarrooftop.gov.in).

(PTI)