Sick of power cuts? Then, produce your own!

Unable to bear the power cuts? Well, become a power producer and use your own power. If you are generous enough, you can give some power to the grid so that the government could supply it to industries and for agriculture. The state government which failed to add to power generation capacity, is now passing on the responsibility to individual consumers. As per a new initiative, willing consumers can use the space on their rooftops for fixing solar panels and produce their own electricity. Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy announced the new scheme on Wednesday at the Legislative Council meeting. On Thursday, the chief minister visited the Vidyut Soudha rooftop solar power producing unit, set up on a pilot basis. The rooftop solar unit of Vidyut Soudha will produce around 250 units per day, which is sufficient for the entire Vidyut Soudha. The production during holidays will flow into the grid. Supplying solar power to the grid is called net metering. The net metering facility is now adoptable by small power plants. Net metering can be followed by consumers who intend to set up solar PV plants on rooftops, waste lands, individual household premises, industries, offices, educational institutions, hostels, commercial complexes and others. The State government’s solar power initiative will enable the individual consumer to produce power on his own, utilise as per his requirement and sell the remaining power to discoms directly. The power transferred to the grid can be used by the consumer as a power bank. If the power produced by his solar panels does not fulfil the household requirements, extra power can be drawn from the grid. The power which was transferred to the grid earlier will be transferred back. If the power consumed is more than the power produced, charges have to be paid. If less power is utilised than the power given to the grid, then the consumers can get monetary benefit. This will result in less load on the grid as the consumers will themselves produce and utilise power. Once the new initiative comes into force, the power thus saved can be utilised for agriculture, industry and commercial purposes.