Encouraging domestic manufacturing of solar energy equipment is essential for the growth of the sector as it is heavily dependent on imports.

D Radhakrishnan

Chairman, Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission

The power sector is grappling with a lot of troubles since the last few years. What according to you has gone wrong in the management of the sector, may be from the legislative (government policies) or the private sector miscalculating the risks? How would you evaluate this situation?

Power sector in India as such has improved a lot in last two decades. The country added around 4 lakh MW (including captive) and now electricity is grid connected with all villages and all house and yes We still need to do a lot on the electricity front. Per capita consumption still hovering around 1200 per unit for last few years and need to be raised at par with the developing countries. But now transport sector is aggressive. We see a sea change in electricity consumption and reduction of import of petroleum products. Railways are all set to have 100% electrification from present 71% and with metros, and electrical vehicles coming up in a big way we feel that electricity consumption in transport sector will raise from present 19 % to at least 40% in next five years. Even on domestic level, with energy conservation method, household consumption is expected a big leap increase to lower down gas consumption and increase domestic appliances push besides raising standard of life. Yes policies are in place and need to revisit and review time to time and that exercise is going on.

Discoms across the country have been severely impacted financially as recoveries have been low and also due to the large T&D losses. The Covid pandemic has worsened the situation as the recoveries were significantly lower. The government at the Center has introduced many schemes to bring out these ailing discoms from financial crisis, but the results have been negligible. Moreover, discoms are a state subject. How do you evaluate the situation? What according to you should have had been the approach in dealing with this?

For past many decades , everyone is trying to improve the financial health of discom as ultimately it is last line of business and the only source to generate finances  in turn to pay back to generators and transmitters of power . Present losses are staggering high and various schemes launched have not shown any significant improvement.  One of the main causes besides commercial losses is technical losses and we are doing some work in this respect for up gradation of system.  And for commercial losses, we need to educate consumers that the rising cost of electricity to all is due to non paying consumers and they should be insulated from the system. Very recently Government of India has announced new set of rules under which all meters would be smart and prepaid concept hopefully it will improve to some extent.

There is an amendment proposed to the Electricity Act 2003. How do you see this improving the power scenario on the T&D front? Do you feel privatization of discom business will help achieve lower losses and efficient recoveries?

The Amendment proposed  mainly address to the difficulties being encountered by Consumers and Discoms in respect of quality, pricing and continuous supply of power along with regulatory strengthening of system and  basically Electricity Act 2003 was enacted replacing all laws in existence and electricity business has seen a sea change thereafter. Thus my feel that these changes will bring more accountability and of course affordability to increase the consumption by average world level and boost  to industries.

There were set guidelines for discoms, captive power plants and large energy consumers to meet the RPO target of solar and non-solar. However, none of the states have been able to achieve the set targets. How according to you can this be streamlined, especially when some discoms are hesitant in buying expensive power from non-solar sources considering the cost associated with it?

The RPO guidelines set by the government for both Solar and Non Solar has indeed increased the renewable energy production unprecedented and next to China and USA we have joined 1 lakh MW club of renewable power. Now this country is poised to achieve 4.50 lakh MW by 2030 and renewable energy need to be encourages. As regards few states not achieving RPO as set by government may get boost after government announced hydrogen and bio energy mission alongwith solar mission. Now even hybrid tariff received is below 2.50 and we can see rooftop started in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in a big way. There are limitations of discoms for not buying costly power due to financial position and once the finances get in order and preferential treatment can be given to renewable as this power is getting cheaper day by date.

What is your take on the solar program of the government? Also, there is a lot of emphasis on Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission. Solar cells and modules are largely imported from China given that they are cheaper than the domestically manufactured cells and modules. Safeguard Duty and BCD have been introduced, but do you think this would give the necessary boost to the private sector to manufacture locally. What more needs to be done to make it lucrative for the manufacturers as well as the users?

The government has also been endorsing domestic manufacturing of solar energy equipment under their broader goal of an “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India). Several policies such as Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, Basic Customs Duty (BCD) and Approved List of Module Manufacturers (ALMM) have been introduced to incentivize this sector. This is essential for the growth of the sector as the Indian solar sector is heavily dependent on imports. The purpose is that we should be globally competitive.

Cells and modules manufacturers who have their facilities in the Special Economic Zones have been raising concerns on their businesses becoming unviable mainly because the supply of products from these zones to non-SEZ areas are considered as imports which attract duty. Do you feel this needs to be streamlined at the government level so that we can encourage more manufacturing in India?

That is a policy as any product from SEZ to Non SEZ  are treated imports  and  can  be taken up by manufactures to reduce cost burden  but idea is that manufacturing units should create more jobs and we have solar economy in a big way .

Can you tell us how far has Tripura progressed in terms of adopting solar capacity installations and meeting the RPO targets?

At Tripura being at low radiation zone we have rooftop solar capacity allowed of 1 MW and which is highest in country. Even we are permitting setting up roof top as a special dispensation on application of  any size. Even Kusum we are paying Rs 3.40 per unit which is highest in the country. We have also started working on Hydrogen Mission. Thus, at Tripura, we are extending all facilities

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