SHILLONG, Feb 18: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, on Thursday, introduced a win-win proposition for the public willing to install solar panels under the newly launched rooftop solar portal of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).
This stratagem comes shortly after the citizens across the state went through some rigorous sessions of load-shedding.
In keeping with the state government’s mission to improve energy access and reduce carbon footprints in Meghalaya, the chief minister launched the Meghalaya Rooftop Solar Portal of the MeECL in a bid to make Meghalaya power surplus.
While informing that people installing rooftop solar panels will have to make zero investment, the chief minister said that they will also receive 40 per cent subsidy from MNRE, 50 per cent from the vendor and 10 per cent from MePDCL.
Also, consumers, who install solar panels, will pay Rs 2 lesser to MeECL as compared to Rs 6 per unit payable at present.
When the consumers are not using electricity from solar panels, they will earn Re 1 per unit from MeECL, he said, adding that consumers can apply for the scheme through the unified solar rooftop portal.
The scheme will allow consumers to be able to rent their rooftops and sell excess electricity generated from solar panels to local electricity utility, a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
“In this way, the ‘consumers’ will also become ‘prosumers’. This scheme will benefit 23,000 households with a maximum of three kilowatt per household. It also provides for NET metering, through which power generated is first utilised by the consumers to meet their requirement while excess is exposed to the grid,” the CMO said.
It may be mentioned that Meghalaya received the highest sanction of funds from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) among all the Northeastern states with a sanctioned capacity of 70 megawatt in the first phase.
However, the chief minister, in his address, asserted that hydropower plants are not enough to meet the consumption needs of the state, and generating power from other alternative sources is less than one per cent. Therefore, some of the quick ways to reduce power deficiency is to have an efficient power system, he added.
On the other hand, Sangma applauded the efforts of the MeECL in achieving the milestone in addressing the power crisis in Meghalaya.
The chief minister also expressed his gratitude to the Power Minister, James K Sangma, for bringing a “significant change to the power scenario in the state, which has been afflicted with power shortage for decades”.
The launch programme was also attended by the Chairman-cum-Managing Director, MeECL, Arunkumar Kembhavi, besides other senior officials of the corporation.
