Did you know installing a Solar rooftop system can reduce your carbon footprint by 95%?

Solar energy works on the basic principle of photoelectric effect where light is converted to electricity. This conversion takes place without any emissions of toxic gases into the environment. Unlike Fossil Fuels, Solar energy has a negligible amount of carbon footprint.

Taking into consideration the extraction of raw materials, transport, processing, manufacturing, the amount of CO₂ emissions released per unit electricity generated is only 48g for Solar Panels compared to 547g and 870g for Natural Gas and Coal respectively.

When your electricity needs are met by Solar power, your carbon footprint is reduced by 92% and 95% as compared to when your electricity needs are met by Natural Gas and Coal respectively.

As Greenhouse gas emissions are less for Solar power, its adoption to combat climate change is a strategy Solarify is implementing at an individual and national level.  Homes, commercial complexes, educational institutions, industries, can reduce their electric-power carbon footprint at a scale and pace that is not only consistent with, but vastly accelerates India's attainment of its Climate Change goals. Go Solar. Go Green.

Calculate your savings from our calculator optimized for your city and building here.

How Solar power can help you save on your electricity bills

In continuation from our previous post on How to read your Electricity bills in Karnataka for a residential connection, here we look at how installing a solar roof top can reduce your electricity bills and help you gain long term financial savings.

Electricity tariffs in Karnataka are on the rise every year. A look at the increase in the tariffs in the past 5 years:

Year	Tariff (above first 200 units –highest slab)
2013	5.50
2014	5.85
2015	6.25
2016	6.40
2017	6.90

              (See full Tariff Here)

The electricity tariff has increased by 25% overall from 2013 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% every year. However, generation of electricity from Solar is fixed at the current market rate of Rs 5.89 which is already lesser than the higher slabs today.

A Typical 3BHK house will consume an average of 300 – 400 units per month, of which anything above the first 200 units falls under the highest slab of Rs 6.90.

Let us take an example of a residential house with a sanctioned load of 3 kW, whose electricity bill is Rs 2038 for a particular month.

As you observe above, a mere consumption of 125 units from the highest slab amounts to 42% of your bill.

Significant savings can be achieved by installing a grid connected solar plant on net metering policy. A Net metering scheme allows users to offset the electricity units drawn from the grid by transferring surplus solar power to the grid. At the end of every month the net electricity units consumed from the grid becomes zero or negligible.

Let us look at the different ways how we can reduce our electricity bills:

Solar plant Size	Units Generated (kWh)	Cost of System (Lakhs)	Bill before Solar (Rs)	Bill after Solar (Rs)	Monthly Solar Earnings (Rs)	Monthly Total Savings (Rs)
2 kW	270	2	2038	322	0	1766
3 kW	405	3	2038	0	566	2604
4 kW	540	4	2038	0	1522	3560
5 kW	675	4.5	2038	0	2478	4516

As observed above, it is ideal to install a 3kW system or more. The total monthly savings is the sum of savings in the electricity bill and earnings from excess generation of electricity from Solar.

Installing a solar rooftop power plant is going to help you achieve significant long term financial savings.

You never have to pay your electricity bill for the next 25 years!

A brief understanding of your Electricity bills

There are times when you start wondering why your electricity bills are increasing every month. It is of crucial importance to know how to save your electricity bills with the constant rise in Grid Tariffs. These tariffs are fixed by the KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission), and the tariffs are different for every consumer category.

As more people realize the need for a clean reliable source of energy and plan for long term savings, their First step is to understand their electricity bills. To help you to get an insight into your electricity bill, a simple info graphic is presented below.

BESCOM bill for a Residential User:

1.     Revenue Register Number: The RR Number is a Unique ID which identifies the Meter installed by BESCOM.

2.   Tariff Category: BESCOM have categorized different establishments under different categories and have assigned different electricity rates to each. To understand the Tariff rates click here. For residential consumers, the category is LT (Low Tension) 2 a (i) and for commercial comsumers, the category is LT (Low Tension) 3 a (i).

3.   Sanctioned Load: The maximum amount of load  demand from your househould when all the appliances are connected. Applying for the correct santioned load for your house is of crucial importance as it helps to avoid paying penalty for heavy load demand.

4.   Cumulative Readings: In order  to calculate the consumption, BESCOM stores your previous bill readings in their devices and calculated the difference between the current reading and previous reading to check your total consumption for a month and generate the bill.

5.  Consumption: The actual consumption of your household is given in bold and large numbers. The units of electricity is measured in Kilo-Watt Hours which is a measurement of energy. On these units you are charged based on the tariffs and slabs decided by KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission).  For large segments, the number of units is multiplied by a Constant which varies based on different loads.

The second half of the bill shows the fixed tariff rates for Residential users:

6.   Fixed Charges: This residential segment has a sanctioned load of 3 KW. KERC have fixed a nominal charge per KW of sanctioned load for a residential segment, as seen in the Fixed Charges box.

7.     Slab Rates: Residential users are charged under Slab Rates. Tariff Slab Rates are decided by the KERC and they are charged depending on the units consumed. The consumer has to be aware of such slabs, as exceeding his/her monthly consumption over 200 units, he/she  will be charged at a higher tariff of Rs 6.90, which increases your bill by a considerable amount.

8.  Final Amount: After adding Taxes, penalties,etc. fixed by the State Government, the final amount payable is printed.

It is crucial for any residential or commercial owner to understand this block as this helps you understand that by turning off devices at home when not needed, your bill might not fall into the higher paying slabs and thus reducing your overall bill cost. BESCOM are providing rebates to users who have installed Solar Heaters in their houses, so consumers can reap the benefits up to Rs.50 savings in their monthly electricity bills.

Understanding the different parts of the electricity bill above, can help you understand your electricity bill and also plan on reducing the electricity consumption for your home. By keeping a track of your units being consumed and your sanctioned load, you can save on your monthly electricity bills.

Next week, we talk about how rooftop solar PV plant can reduce your electricity bills and how you can gain long term financial savings…

Solar power potential in Peenya Industrial Area

By guest author - Girish Shivakumar

Peenya Industrial Area (PIA) is largest small scale industrial sectors within Bengaluru city. PIA is one of the largest Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) cluster in the country. Industries ranging from rolling mills to electrical equipment manufacturing to tool and dye making are present in the area.

Cluster profile

There are around 750 HT 2A (industrial category) consumers under Peenya sub-division of BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company). The average contract demand for this sub-division under HT2A category works out to be around 350kVA per consumer. A closer look at the cluster indicates that the consumers with contract demand of <150kVA and between 200-300kVA are equally distributed and account for nearly 50% of the consumer set.

Solar rooftop potential

Under the current solar rooftop policy, consumers could install solar PV up to 150% of their contract demand. So, for a consumer in PIA with 300kVA contract demand, an installation of 450kWp is possible. However, PIA has a wide range of rooftop spaces including asbestos roofing. Most of the roof orientation is nearly south facing but a few roofs are also inclined on the East-West direction. This would technically restrict the installation capacity to 100% of their contract demand or less on an average. 

Consumers with large rooftop spaces

PIA average industrial rooftop space

Economic viability

Considering an electrical load profile of an average industrial client in PIA with a contract demand of less than 150kVA the viability of a 99kWp solar rooftop PV is evaluated. Under the existing policies, the base electrical tariff is at ₹ 6.25/kWh with the tariff for excess PV generation fed back to the grid paid at ₹ 6.14 /kWh and hence the capacity of 99kWp and not 100kWp. In the scenario evaluated which is an average case of industries in PIA there is no general potential for PV export.  

As the results from the analysis reveal, even with a 99kWp solar PV plant, the average industry reduces net electricity consumption from the grid by 68% on an annual basis. The solar energy estimate is a conservative one considering an E-W orientation. Financially, assuming the current tariffs and capital cost for a 99kWp PV plant, the payback is close to 6 years with the obvious advantage of having a PV plant performing up to 25 years and beyond. However, with 80% Accelerated Depreciation (AD) available for businesses the payback is 5 years or lesser.

Overall, there is a definite net benefit to industries in opting for solar rooftop PV considering increasing grid prices and decreasing solar costs.

•           Reduction in net energy costs which are prone to annual hikes
•           AD benefit is a good enabler for industries

Even as the solar industry moves towards the 500kWp-1MWp sector for rooftops in the country, an average 100kWp solar plant that suits most of the industries in a cluster like PIA will be significant. Assuming a mere 10% solar adoption with 100kWp system the potential translates to a market of around 25MW in the Peenya Industry alone. Going forward, if India has to make reasonable progress in achieving the 40GW target by 2022, industrial clusters like these are significant and techno-commercial viability under current scenario make them a low hanging fruit.