West Bengal govt plans new solar policy

Kolkata, Aug 12: The West Bengal government is planning to introduce a new solar policy to meet the Centre's revised target of generating 4,500 MW solar energy by 2022 in the state.

"We will bring a new solar policy, 2016 to encourage investment in the sector. The old policy has failed to boost solar power generation in the state," state power minister Shobandeb Chatterjee said today at an interactive session with the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

A draft policy has been submitted and the same will be submitted with the government after public feedback is received.

Chatterjee said that the Centre decided to scale down the solar power generation target for West Bengal from 5,200 MW to 4,500 MW. He said the state government did not want the power tariff to go up and for the same it was cautious on grid connected solar projects.

"We do not want the power tariff to rise due to solar energy. Mamata Banerjee wants that there should be no tariff hike for consumption of upto 300 units," Chatterjee said.

The state commission (state electricity regulatory commission) is asking us to raise tariff every quarter, he said.

Already the government is spending Rs 500 crore in subsidising poor electricity consumers. However, the state is carrying out several solar projects in the state including electrification of school buildings and government offices.

In Turga of Purulia, the state is planning to install a 1200 MW solar plant to feed 1000 MW pump storage hydel power plant.

PTI