Solar PV power has achieved grid parity. The prices have drastically fallen down in the last ten (10) years. The 25 Years  levellised tariff realised in the latest bidding is only Rs2.70/Unit, which is lower than the variable cost of so many thermal power plants in the Country. (presently around Rs 3.0 per Unit)

Connecting Solar PV Power Plants (SPP) at distribution level i.e. 33 kV and below Voltage levels is very much promising to encourage decentralised distribution & generation, particularly to meet Domestic, Institutional and Agriculture Consumption. Installing Solar PV at distribution level not only meets the local load requirement but avoids the inevitable Transmission Charges and Losses. The SPPs at distribution level are, generally, less than 1 MW of Output Capacity. At distribution level, these SPPs are located at various physical locations and comprise the Distributed Power Generation (DPG) Network. These DPG-SPPs are not effected significantly by “Cloud Cover Phenomenon”. In the DPG-SPPs, the cloud cover effects only the local generation to the extent of only 10s of MW, and it will not cause major disturbance in the Power Grid. So they are better choice for Power Grid Stability

In “Solar Parks”, a Very Large Centralized SPP with installed power output of  1,000MW and above are presently installed in many parts of India. These are spread over thousands of acres of land. In these large Centralized SPPS, when clouds cover a large area or pass through that large area, solar insolation incident on the Solar PV Panels is Reduced, suddenly and considerably. Under this cloudy condition, a typical Centralized SPP of 1,000 MW rating, undergoes an output  power variation up to 30% to 50% . This will cause sudden Ramp down of  SPP output to as low as 500 MW and again Ramp Up to 1,000 MW after cloud passed the large land area.  These Large and Fast Ramp Down and Ramp Up of  Power will create large transient disturbances in the Power Grid. This will endanger the security of the Power Grid.

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Govt. of India, along with State Govts and State Nodal agencies has been implementing several measures for promoting installation of Solar PV Power Plants (SPP) at various  locations, Like on Roof Tops, Ground Mounted and also at different class of consumer premises, and connecting them to Power Distribution network. They are implementing certain promotional incentives such as Capital Subsidy, Viability Gap Funding (VGF), Gross/Net Metering, Purchase of Power through Long Term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), encouraging domestic manufacturing of Solar PV equipment / components, etc.

Our Country being an Agriculture based economy, and has crores of Irrigation pump-sets. These depend on grid power. This is a major potential area where Solar PV Plants (SPP) of low capacity can be vastly utilized. Also, Govt. of India announced PM-KUSUM scheme for solarisation of existing pump-sets, installing dedicated solar plants at distribution feeder level feeding exclusive Agriculture loads etc. The presentation would discuss main features of KUSUM scheme etc.

Also, in this webinar the main focus will be to present and discuss about the opportunities available for Solar PV Power Plants at Distribution level and their Technical and Commercial implications and Future prospects.

About the Invited Speaker :