Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) recommends collecting charges from solar ‘prosumers’—electricity consumers who also produce electricity from solar and other renewable energy sources and sell it to the grid, in line with the tariff for rooftop home-generated solar power.
This recommendation by KSERC will affect those who have invested huge amounts in setting up solar panels with the aim of reducing their electricity bills. The new directive will apply to solar energy generated in homes and institutions, including rooftop solar installations.
KSERC recommends that the solar electricity tariff be collected from the prosumers who produce solar energy from households and supply it to the KSEB grids after consumption. According to this recommendation, those who have installed solar panels will now have to pay the same tariff as those consuming electricity directly from KSEB.
Currently, KSEB deducts the number of units of solar power generation from the total electricity consumption and charges tariff for the remaining units. But, with the new recommendation, KSEB prosumers will need to pay for total units used from both they produced from their solar panels and from KEEB grid.
The current tariff rate for solar power generation is Rs. 2.69 per unit. KSERC recommends changing the current practice, where prosumers only pay KSEB for excess units used beyond what they produce from solar energy.
