Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to Get Its First Solar Plant

The municipal corporation is all set to get its first solar power plant at the main water works in Sector 39, costing between Rs 4-5 crore. The 1MW plant will come up over the clear water tank and Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology (CREST) will run

BY Realty Plus
Published - Saturday, 01 May, 2021

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to Get Its First Solar Plant

The municipal corporation is all set to get its first solar power plant at the main water works in Sector 39, costing between Rs 4-5 crore. The 1MW plant will come up over the clear water tank and Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology (CREST) will run it through a selected private player. The project will come up under Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) mode, under which the private company will install solar energy plants on the property and in return charge from the building owner a much lower tariff than the normal electricity rate for about 15 or 25 years or whatever period is agreed in the tender. In the MC’s project, the agreement will be for 25 years. With this mode, the MC will be able to save around Rs 26 lakh annually by giving less power tariff of the water works. In RESCO mode, we will have to pay Rs 3.33 per unit to the company as power tariff, and currently we are paying Rs 5.2 per unit. Therefore, it will give us a benefit of around Rs 26 lakh annually MC said the Sector 39 water works has over six big tanks and all were under renovation to enhance their water storage capacity. If this project remains successful, all the tanks will have solar plants. Deliberations for the project were going on for the past few months and senior engineering officers had also held meetings with the CREST officials. This is the first project to be matured. The Central government had given the Chandigarh administration a target to install 69MW solar plants in the entire city by 2022. The CREST has managed to install plants of 39.426MW so far, covering both government as well as private buildings. But to meet the target, the CREST has to install more solar plants, for which different schemes are being offered to people.