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The Delhi government will increase power generation capacity in the city by 6,000 MW in the next three years using renewable energy sources through various initiatives, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday.
The city government is working on a war footing to meet Delhi's electricity demand using renewable energy, he added.
"Our target is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and meet power demand using renewable energy to make Delhi self-reliant in its energy needs, ensuring uninterrupted 24x7 electricity supply for citizens and meeting the growing power demand," Sisodia said in a statement.
The deputy chief minister emphasised on faster adoption of rooftop solar panels by Delhi government offices, schools and other buildings, as per the city's new solar policy.
Chairing a crucial meeting of the energy department to review the city's preparedness to meet future energy needs, Sisodia instructed officials to explore potential areas for setting up new solar energy plants and initiate unique projects like setting up floating solar plants over lakes to achieve renewable energy targets.
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The highest electricity demand recorded in Delhi was 7,695 MW in June 2022. At present, the power discoms have tie-ups for a total of 8,471 MW, of which 33 per cent (around 2,826 MW) is generated from renewable sources, officials said in the meeting.
The renewable sources are primarily solar energy and wind energy that contribute approximately 2,000 MW to Delhi's power supply, they said.
The draft of the new solar policy of the Delhi government will encourage Delhiites to install solar panels on rooftops through a generation-based incentive (GBI) of Rs 2-3 per unit of power for residential sector and Re 1 for the commercial sector.
The policy also envisages providing a subsidy of Rs 2,000 per kilowatt per consumer, up to a maximum limit of Rs 10,000.
In addition to this, all government buildings with a rooftop area of 500 square metres and above will be solarised, recommends the draft solar policy that targets installation of an additional 500 MW of rooftop solar plants in Delhi over the next three years.
The discoms are in consultation with different agencies for an additional renewable energy supply of 3,000 MW. After a 1,000 MW solar plant and a 111 MW wind power plant of the Solar Energy Corporation (SECI) are commissioned, Delhi will get 1,100 MW more electricity sourced from renewable energy, the officials said.
Apart from this, work is underway on several renewable energy generation projects totalling 2,100 MW that are expected to be completed soon, they added.
All these steps will increase sustainable power generation capacity by up to 6,000 MW over the next three years, the statement said.
In 2018 and afterwards, the Delhi government entered into power purchase agreements with several companies to meet the growing electricity demand in the city, it added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
