Milan Vihar Apartments become first East Delhi society to be powered by the Sun
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Milan Vihar Apartments become first East Delhi society to be powered by the Sun

The recent surge in solar rooftop plants is a result of both the central and Delhi governments’ efforts to make the national capital a ‘solar city’. 
 

Milan Vihar Apartments become first East Delhi society to be powered by the Sun Solar power system at Milan Vihar apartments

Milan Vihar Apartments in IP Extension recently became the first housing society in East Delhi to install a solar power plant on their rooftop under the RESCO (Renewable Energy Service Company) model.

As per the model, the cost of installing the solar power plant is borne by a private company. The company will receive 30 percent capital subsidy from the central government and will offer electricity to the consumers at cheaper rates.

Milan Apartments have installed a 140 KW plant with the support of Green Repel, a private firm.

Rajeev Ranjan Dwivedi, General Secretary of the apartments, told City Spidey that the developer has invested Rs. 70 lakh on the project. He further added that the society has signed an agreement with the company for 25 years.

According to Rakesh Sharma, president of Milan Vihar managing committee, the society currently spends around Rs. 40 lakh per year for power consumption in common areas.

“BSES charges Rs. 7 per unit from us for power consumption in common areas. However, now that the solar power plant is installed, the private firm will generate electricity at the rate of Rs 4.66 per unit. Further, we will benefit from the Rs. 2 per unit generation-based-incentive of the Delhi government and have to pay electricity charges at the rate of Rs. 2.66 per unit. This rate is set to remain consistent for the upcoming 25 years. The private firm installing the power plant will be able to earn adequate profits by selling electricity,” Sharma added.

Sharma said that, as per the agreement, the plant will generate around 1.7 lakh units of electricity per year and the society will earn Rs 3.4 lakh per year as generation-based-incentives. He further added that the maintenance of the plant would be Green Repel’s responsibility.

A K Jha, executive officer in power department (Delhi government) and in-charge of solar power project told City Spidey that in the last one year several group housing societies have expressed the desire to install solar plants.

However, earlier, they were unable to do so as one time capital investment for installing 1 KW solar power system used to cost around Rs. 55 lakh.

Apart from the Milan Vihar Apartments, Dwarka's Shiv Bhole Apartments is the only other housing society in Delhi which has installed solar power plants under the RESCO model.

“After conducting several meetings with RWAs and housing societies we realised that they were interested in adopting solar power systems but lack of revenue was a major obstacle for them. Therefore, we introduced the RESCO model in which they have to provide enough space on the rooftop of their buildings whereas the private developer will bear costs of installing the system. We are hopeful that more housing societies will now show interest in installing solar power plants,” Jha said.