The Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) has issued the Draft Solar Energy Policy for the year 2018.

The policy aims to establish an ecosystem that translates the country’s solar energy vision into enabling policy systems and processes and create a single window system for technical support, funding support, and project clearance.

According to Mercom India’s Solar Project Tracker, Tamil Nadu has an installed capacity of 2.2 GW and ranks fifth among Indian states for solar installations.

The policy will be applicable to projects, programs and installations relating to both solar photovoltaic energy (solar PV) and solar thermal energy.

Key Highlights

Tamil Nadu aims to have an installed solar energy generation capacity of 8,884 MW by 2022. Of this target, 40 percent is expected to be met by consumer scale solar energy generators.

If a distribution company (DISCOM) fails to comply with RPO mandates, penalties specified by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) for non‐compliance will be strictly enforced.

Solar energy will be exempted from electricity tax, grid connectivity, open access, wheeling, and banking and cross-subsidy charges.

Solar energy gross and net feed-in tariffs will be determined by TNERC taking into consideration different capital costs-based on the solar system capacity. A dedicated solar energy storage feed-in tariff will be determined by TNERC. This tariff will be designed to incentivize solar energy export to the grid at peak demand hours.

Any building type that requires being ECBC-compliant will follow ECBC compliance guidelines for the installation of solar PV and solar thermal energy systems. The directorate of town and country planning in collaboration with local bodies will need to amend their building by-laws to mandate ECBC.

All public buildings will be mandated to meet 30 percent of their energy requirements from solar energy by 2022.

Streetlights and water supply installation of corporations, municipalities and local urban bodies are mandated to meet 30 percent of their energy requirements from solar energy by 2022.

All state government departments will replace 10 percent of their existing vehicle fleet with solar powered, electric vehicles by 2022.

Suitable incentive programs will be designed to promote solar energy generation in the agricultural sector. This may include incentives to farmers for reported solar energy generation.

Solar energy imported by the distribution licensee from non-obligated solar energy producers (including electricity consumers with gross or net feed-in facilities) can be claimed by the distribution licensee towards fulfilment of their renewable energy purchase obligations (RPO).

The Government of Tamil Nadu wants to promote the manufacture of solar energy components including solar cells, inverters, mounting structures and batteries in the state. Land will be identified for the development of solar manufacturing. A single window process for all departmental approvals, including a set time limit for each approval is expected to be designed.

An incentive program will be designed to promote the co-utilization of land for solar energy projects, crop cultivation and rain water harvesting.

From April 2019 onwards, all new service connection meters in Tamil Nadu are to be configured for bidirectional energy recording and display so that all new service connections and existing service connections for which the meters are replaced in the normal course of maintenance are ready for effecting solar energy net metering at any time in the future.

The TEDA draft policy is open for comments. Mercom previously reported, that for financial year (FY) 2019-2020 the solar RPO is set at 7.25 percent and non-solar RPO at 10.25 percent. The solar RPO for FY 2020-2021 is 8.75 percent and non-solar RPO is 10.25 percent. This increases to a solar RPO of 10.50 percent in FY 2021-2022 and non-solar RPO of 10.50 percent in FY 2021-2022.