Centre notifies new guidelines for rooftop solar plants, deets inside

PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana offers two alternative implementation models for the installation of rooftop solar plants for consumers

New Delhi: In an effort to boost the installation of rooftop solar plants, the Centre on Tuesday notified new scheme guidelines under the PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana.

The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has notified new norms for implementation of the ‘Payment Security Mechanism’ component and ‘Central Financial Assistance’ component for RESCO models/utility-led aggregation models.

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The scheme offers two alternative implementation models for the installation of rooftop solar plants for consumers.

These are the RESCO (renewable energy service company) model, where third-party entities invest in rooftop solar installations, allowing consumers to pay only for the electricity consumed without bearing the upfront costs; and the utility-led aggregation (ULA) model, where discoms or state designated entities will install rooftop solar projects on behalf of individual residential sector households.

Under this scheme component, a Rs 100 crore corpus fund has been earmarked for payment security mechanism (PSM) for de-risking investments in RESCO-based grid-connected rooftop solar models in the residential sector, which may be supplemented through other grants, funds and sources after due approval of the Ministry.

“These guidelines are in addition to the existing mode of implementation undertaken by consumers (capex mode) through the national portal (www.pmsuryaghar.gov.in/), and these alternative models will supplement the national portal-based implementation of the scheme,” the Ministry said.

The PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana aims to supply solar power to one crore households by March 2027. Since its launch in February 2024 with an allocated budget of Rs 75,021 crore, the scheme with 685,763 installations reached 86 per cent of what was installed a decade before that.

The key demand came from the 3-5 kW load segment at 77 per cent installations, while 14 per cent was in the segment higher than 5 kW. Gujarat showed the highest installations followed by Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala. More than 1.45 crore registrations have been done so far under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, according to government data last month.

The scheme offers a subsidy of up to 40 per cent to households, making renewable energy more affordable and accessible