CM Arvind Kejriwal inaugurates rooftop solar power plants in Dwarka

With an aim to promote usage of solar energy, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated solar power plants at Dwarka's residential societies on Saturday.

The total capacity of the plants is 416.5 KW. The five societies which have 505 flats, will be the first-ever projects on a large scale after IP Extension's Milan Colony to have their own solar power plant.

The societies included are Ispat CGHS, Saksham apartments, Supriya apartments, Balaji Apartments and Navrattan apartments.

"Power tariffs have been considerably reduced by our Government. If you compare power tariff with other states, 400 units of power in Delhi would cost around Rs 1,200 and in Mumbai, it would cost Rs 4,000. We are able to give uninterrupted power supply to the citizens of Delhi," Kejriwal said.

According to the officials, the plants would generate more than 4.8 lakh units of power each year, and cumulatively 1.2 crore units of power over the life of the plant (25 years). This clean solar energy would replace over 1 crore kgs (or 10,000 tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions, said an official.

The price of the power would be Rs. 4.6 per unit and price would further reduce by Rs 2 as the installations would be eligible for an incentive of Rs. 2 per unit from the Government of Delhi. So the actual price per unit would be Rs 2.6. This is the first time solar plants are being set up on such a grand scale. Customers would save Rs. 2.5 per unit of power generated, resulting in a lifetime savings of over Rs. 3 crores to the societies.

The plants are one of the largest under the BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd. (BRPL) 'Solar City Initiative — Solarise Dwarka' initiative launched on Jan 7 early this year. The Solarise Dwarka initiative is being implemented by BRPL in collaboration with TERI and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ India) under its Indo-German Solar Partnership project.

"BRPL is at the forefront of leading the solar revolution in the city and sees unique benefits of adding distributed generation in its network. We would like to achieve at least 2.5MW of solar installation within Dwarka. We are convinced of the increased role solar and other green energy would play going forward. We want to lead from the front," said a BSES spokesperson.