Today, 20th June, 2024, the Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Science & Technology Department Shri Saurabh Bhagat, chaired a meeting with the designated Nodal Officers of all the Departments at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar, to discuss the saturation of Solar Rooftop Power Plants on Government Buildings of the UT of J&K. Among others, the meeting was also attended by Additional Secretary, S&T Department, CEO JAKEDA, Executive Engineer JAKEDA and the consultants from AHAsolar Technologies Ltd.
The Commissioner/Secretary S&T informed that a two-pronged strategy is being adopted for 100% solarization of the Government Buildings in the UT of J&K. Out of 22494 Government Buildings to be solarized, 8792 numbers with a cumulative capacity of 70MW shall be solarized in Capex Mode of implementation at a total project cost of Rs 350 crores, for which the tender has been floated by JAKEDA, while as 7039 numbers of buildings with 175 MW cumulative capacity shall be taken up for solarization under RESCO mode of implementation through Solar Power Developers (SPDs) on tariff based bidding. So far 3825 numbers of Government Buildings have already been solarized which is equivalent to 17%.
The Rooftop Solar Power Plants would be connected with the Utility Grid on Net Metering basis. The smart meters would be provided by the DISCOMs enabled with bi-directional feature. The Virtual Net Metering (VNM) benefit would be passed by the DISCOMs to the Departments, where, the excess energy generated by the Solar Power Plants at a particular site would be adjusted against the other sites of the same Department, within the same DISCOM. The Project shall be completed by December, 2025.
All the Departments gave its formal consent for project and also assured JAKEDA of their fund contributions out of their respective Capex Budgets.
The Solarization of Government Buildings will lead to reduction in Energy Billing of the Departments and dependence on fossil fuels to achieve the Renewable Power Obligations under various national and international commitments.
J&K will benefit from the generation of approximately 400 Million Units of clean energy annually, and 10,000 MUs over the minimum lifetime of 25 years of the project. The investment in CAPEX mode shall be recovered at a rate of 25% annually with a payback period of approximately 4 years, on account of saving of Energy while as in 50% of bill amount would be saved under RESCO mode of Solarization of government Buildings. The overall funds saved on this account could be utilized for other developmental works in the UT of J&K.
