Reeling under a severe power crunch, the Tamil Nadu Government has drawn up plans to encourage energy efficient systems using solar and other forms of energy in the coming months.
The proposals include provision of subsidised solar pumps, generation-based incentive scheme for domestic solar rooftops, besides presenting awards to those who use solar power lights effectively.
The Government has proposed to provide “generation-based incentives for domestic solar rooftops for a total maximum capacity of 50 MW during this financial year”, the energy department said in its policy note.
Besides this, the Government is also mulling providing subsidised solar pumps (86 per cent subsidy — 56 per cent from the Ministry of Agriculture and 30 per cent from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) on a pilot basis to select applicants for agriculture service connections.
The Government has also planned to recognise usage of solar rooftops by presenting the Chief Minister’s awards which would be given annually to different categories of consumers generating maximum solar energy, it said.
A 60kW rooftop solar power plant at the Electricity Board office headquarters here would also be set up for promoting solar energy.
The policy note said the Government has proposed to distribute one crore compact fluorescent lamps at a subsidised cost of Rs 15 per bulb to achieve a savings of around 250 MW at a cost of Rs 85 crore.
Energy efficient agricultural pump-sets (having a minimum three-star label) would be made mandatory for new connections.
“The Government is also planning to set up a demonstration project by erecting star-rated energy efficient pump-sets in a select feeder on pilot basis,” the note said adding that a Perform, Achieve and Trade mechanism would be followed to target energy savings of up to Rs 200 crore.