The installation of solar power plants under the grid connected rooftop scheme will start from government buildings in Bihar. The selection of agency for this work has been done and the installation work is expected to start by the end of the current month.

The scheme entails setting up rooftop solar power energy source on buildings owned by individuals or organisations as well as government offices. A sum of Rs 75,000 for setting up the micro solar power plants generating 1KW of power at rooftops would be required out of which half of the cost would come as subsidy from the Centre and the state in case of individual households.

In case of institutions, government buildings and social organisations, subsidy would be 25 per cent of the cost whereas commercial or industrial units would not be entitled for any subsidy.

“We had received applications from different government offices for setting up these micro plants on their office rooftops. The total number of applications had a combined demand of 40MW of power through this route. An agency has been selected on the basis of competitive bidding which will start work by the end of this month,” a senior official of the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA), which is responsible for implementing the scheme in the state, told The Telegraph.

He said the bidding was done after the Centre sanctioned its share of funds under the scheme for installing rooftop solar plants for government buildings. According to the norms of the scheme, the Centre and the state have to bear equally the subsidy that has to be given to the individuals, government offices or the institutions opting for the scheme.

The state government has already provided a sum of Rs 241 crore for this project whereas the Centre is releasing funds on the basis of sanctioned projects.

The official pointed out that around four months would be taken to complete the installation work after which the distribution company concerned will install two-way electric meters in the buildings to connect them with the local grid.

The two-way meters needed to be installed because the scheme also has a buyback component under which the distribution companies would buy back the power at the current tariff, in case the user is not using it for the time being.

The two-way meters allow flow of electricity both ways, i.e. from distribution company to consumer and vice-versa. The meter would also ensure that power from the distribution company is supplied to the consumer only if the daily quota of power generated by the rooftop plant is consumed.

In case of non-use of power generated at rooftops, the same would be supplied to the distribution company.

On the progress made in installing these plants in individual households from which application with demand of around 20MW of power has been received so far, the BREDA official said the Centre has approved this lot also and now bidding would be done for selecting the agency to undertake this work as well.