Bhubaneswar: The Central Government’s Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, a scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with much fanfare ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is not finding many takers in Odisha as it comes with a cost-burden. Household electricity consumers in the State have shown little interest in the scheme.
Out of nearly one crore electricity consumers in Odisha, 74,479 have expressed interest in the scheme. As per an RTI reply, only 952 applicants have installed roof top solar as on November 18, 2024. In order to implement the scheme, more than 150 vendors have registered themselves under 4 discoms for providing installation services in Odisha.
The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with much fanfare ahead of the Lok Sabha elections with an aim to provide 300 units of free electricity to households each month. The objective of the scheme with an investment of Rs.75,000 crore was to enable a crore households across the country to install roof-top grid-connected solar energy systems by providing attractive subsidies. The amount of subsidy ranges between Rs.30,000 and Rs.78,000 for individual households based on the capacity. Group housing societies and residential welfare associations are eligible for a handsome subsidy of Rs.18,000 per KW up to 500 KW.
Financial concerns, procedural hurdles, confusion in on-grid and off-grid connections, or lack of information are the primary barriers to consumers not following up with their applications, said some vendors.
Discoms are crucial to the scheme’s success, yet there is a perception that promoting rooftop solar panels uptake might adversely impact their finances. This is because consumers would generate their own power, resulting in the loss of consumer base for discoms. Integrating rooftop solar system into the distribution grid would enable generation closer to load centres. This will eventually reduce technical losses in transferring power from distant power plants to load centres through the transmission and distribution network, they said.