Kerala Power Department might make solar plants mandatory for houses

Thiruvananthapuram: In an attempt to accelerate the shift to renewable energy sources, the state Power Department might make it mandatory for new residential buildings with a plinth size of over 3000 sq ft to install a solar plant. If these large houses will be asked to install a plant with a minimum capacity of 1 kW, less sprawling houses in the range of 2000-3000 sq ft, too, will have to mandatorily install a plant with a minimum capacity of 500 W.

The average cost of putting up a 1 kW plant is Rs 1.5 lakh. For the 500 W plant, it will be Rs 50,000. KSEB Limited, once the energy conservation drive (ECD) comes into force, will be authorised to deny power connection to households not complying with this new conservation standard.

ECD guidelines have already been drawn up. Once it comes into force, the large buildings, with 3000 sq ft or more floor area, will have to install a solar plant of 1 kW capacity within a period of one year from the date of this notification for meeting partial, or full electrical energy requirements. “These guidelines have been evolved as part of rationalising the use of electrical energy,” a top Power Department official said.

Smaller households, besides installing 500 W plants, will have to strictly adhere to other conservation standards, too. The hot water requirements of new buildings having a floor area of 2000 sq ft or above, for instance, should be met using solar water heaters with a minimum size of 100 litre.

Considering the gluttony of inverters, the ECD guidelines state that all grid-charged inverters must be converted to solar charging. However, it can be done in a phased manner. Grid-charging should be resorted to only as an emergency back-up. Households have also been asked to provide automatic facility to avoid charging of inverters from grid during peak period.