SunSource Energy, solar power developers with expertise in rooftop installations for commercial and industrial establishments, is in talks with resident welfare associations to sign power purchase agreements.
“We are in conversation with several RWAs for signing PPAs. Today, most of the RWAs are sourcing power and distributing it locally. RWAs are becoming like mini-discoms,” Kushagra Nandan, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder, SunSource Energy, told BusinessLine .
Adarsh Das, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SunSource Energy added, “As developers it simplifies things for us. Instead of talking to multiple people, we can deal with just one legal entity like an RWA. However, for projects to materialise, it will take another 6-7 months.”
Both the founders of the company admitted that residential rooftop segment is a difficult market to crack as residential tariffs are still lower.
Nandan and Das expect residential rooftop solar projects to come into the mainstream only after 3-4 years.
“Unless residential tariffs cross ₹ 6-7 a unit, rooftop solar projects will be very tough to implement,” said Nandan.
SunSource Energy has focussed on commercial and industrial rooftop projects. The founders pointed out two advantages of this model.
“Purely from an economic standpoint, the blended cost of power (diesel generators and grid-connected power supply) turns out to be ₹ 9-10 a unit. With solar, we can give them a 10-15 per cent discount,” said Nandan.
Net-metering policies where the distribution utilities purchase the power generated from rooftop solar projects, were expected to facilitate more such installations.
However, unwillingness on the part of distribution utilities is causing delays in implementation of net-metering.