The Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC) has approved the regulations for distributed renewable energy projects. These regulations will apply to prosumer distributed renewable energy systems (PRDES) owned by a prosumer or a third party. As stipulated in the regulations, a portion of distributed renewable energy generation will be accounted for by the distribution company (discom) towards the compliance of its renewable purchase obligation. Also, according to the regulations, the discom must procure any excess energy generated by PDRES at the end of the settlement period. This will be done at the lowest rooftop solar tariff discovered through competitive bidding undertaken by the discom in the last financial year.
The total rooftop solar capacity installed in the country is insignificant as compared to the ground-mounted capacity. While ground-mounted solar capacity reached 26.4 GW as of March 2019, the rooftop capacity was only around 4.3 GW. That said, growth in the rooftop segment has started picking up with the government’s increased focus on the segment.
On August 20, 2019, the government released guidelines for the implementation of Phase II of the Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme. It outlines the roadmap for achieving 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity by 2022. A key highlight of this phase is the role assigned to discoms for developing a rooftop solar network across their user base.
Read more about the guidelines here: