Will an open access policy across India give the much needed thrust to solar power?

Open access policy open ways to buy power at competitive price, this policy can be a game changer in the solar sector. Here we have taken a quick opinion on this from a few industry veterans, see what they say…

Jaideep N. Malaviya, Secretary General, Solar Thermal Federation of India (STFI)

“Open access for solar PV can be a useful concept for meeting the Renewable Purchase Obligations particularly in states where vast lands are available. This will give impetus to more Solar Parks coming up. However, to appease the State DISCOMS uncertainty in policy prevails by state governments. Besides, unpredictable grid availability poses risks. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission needs to fix a national open access charge associated with compensation in case of grid failure.”

Pinaki Bhattacharyya, CEO, AMP India

“Open Access provides a competitive platform to customers to choose their energy supplier thereby leading to competitive price discovery and bridging the demand supply gap. If discoms are using competitive means to procure the cheapest power then in the same light industries should be allowed to chose their source of power and reduce their power procurement cost. They will still be buying from the discoms as renewable power cannot replace majority of their power supply due to the intermittent nature of RE. This may even encourage the industry to increase the industrial footprint in the state. So it will be a win-win situation for everybody. Additionally, since open access is viable for large C&I customers, it could help India meet its 100GW target by rapid capacity deployment. But to achieve this, a comprehensive open access framework to promote open access projects by providing single window clearance mechanism, exemption on OA, transmission & distribution, cross subsidy surcharges, permitting banking of energy etc would be needed to be consistently followed by all state governments.”

Pawan Pandey, Director, Radite Group

” A genuine open access policy across large states will definitely have a huge impact on solar growth. The corporate and industrial market has very high potential for a high adoption of solar energy and lack of enabling policy is the only factor keeping them from moving, and not just for environmental credentials, but lower costs too! “