Ashden award winner and former West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation's managing director, SP Gon Chaudhuri is the group’s Chairman and the recommendations primarily focus on two aspects – developing rural electrification and decentralizing distribution of generation.
Last year, the group held meetings on off-grid systems tariff to frame the draft policy. In rural areas, the power supply tariff is Rs 90 per unit in some places. But, reality is that many of these places do not receive any power. Rural areas use kerosene to a large extent. S P Gon Chaudhuri said, "Solar, bio mass and wind are the available local renewable energy sources in rural areas. Cost of power can come down to Rs 10 per unit if these sources are tapped."
Chaudhuri has also proposed to provide the opportunity of selling solar power to the grid in rural areas. He believes, the system would be useful in around 1 lakh villages in India, where this system could be used effectively.
According to estimates, almost 16% of the country's 6 lakh villages do not have electricity at present. More than 85% of the rural poor and 44% of rural households do not have access to electricity. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is promoting off-grid renewable energy for a long time. But the growth of off-grid systems has been much lower than expectations so far. Subsidy offered for off-grid generation is in the form of capital grants. Thus, consumers of off-grid electricity systems are charged much more compared to grid-connected consumers. "For these reasons, a proper policy and regulatory framework is required for fully exploiting the economical potential of decentralized renewable energy systems," said Gon Chaudhuri.
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