Recently, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced that the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has introduced generation based incentives (GBI) for the first 100 MW of grid connected solar photovoltaics (PV) commissioned in the nation.
A day later, MNRE Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah called for the preparation of an action plan for introducing net metering for commercial and residential rooftop PV plants, as part of a national consultation on the subject.
Under the GBI program, incentives are supplied to support projects under 33 kV connected to the distribution grid, as well as to support 100 MW of projects between 100 kW and 2 MW.
IREDA has selected 78 projects for a total of roughly 98 MW to participate in the program. Through the program, IREDA will provide the subsidy of INR 12.41/kWh (USD 0.235/kWh) to state utilities when they purchase power from the project developers.
MNRE states that the quantum of GBI to the utilities is fixed and represents the difference between the CERC tariff of 2010-2011 at INR 17.91/kWh and a reference tariff of INR 5.5/kWh.
The program is no longer accepting new project proposals. A similar program has been set up for wind power.
