81271123-Developing Accelerated PV Grid Integration Strategy for State of Gujarat

India's sustained growth, which is projected to be around 7 per cent per annum over the next few years, poses enormous challenges with regards to energy and climate policy. With emissions of 2.3 billion tones (t) of CO2 per year (2014), electricity generation accounts for the bulk of the emissions equalling to around 30 per cent of the total. There is an urgency to improve the climate balance while meeting the increased energy demand and providing access to electricity to India's population. In order to curb the climate imbalance and provide uninterrupted power supply to all; the Government of India has increased the renewable energy generation target to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, of which 40 GW will be generated by decentralised rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. The annual rate of expansion is not sufficient to achieve the target set for 2022. Despite policy and regulatory support from central and state governments, many challenges exist that affect the uptake of solar rooftop development on a large scale. Some of these are: lack of awareness among consumers, absence of innovative and attractive business and incapability of power distribution companies to promote rooftop solar PV and accommodate the business environment. Thus, the current annual rate of growth is not sufficient to achieve the target envisaged for 2022 by the Government. The project is developing market forces while introducing enabling mechanisms and facilitating investments in rooftop PV systems. The core focus of the project is to develop the market through competition and to work systematically in selected project areas in association with the four core actors namely: 1) State Nodal Agencies (SNAs); 2) Distribution Licensees (DISCOMs); 3) Municipal Corporations, licensing authorities and local enterprises in selected municipal areas (e.g. in the smart cities of Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, and Kochi, or in other cities); and 4) Market participants (project developer, investors, etc.). In the multipronged approach, the project is working on the market forces to accelerate the expansion of rooftop PV systems while designing enabling mechanisms and thus facilitating investments in rooftop PV systems. The project operates in five different activities, to achieve the objective: 1) Ensuring a long-term commitment on the part of DISCOMs; 2) Creating conducive local (municipal) conditions; 3) Promoting and implementing successful business models; 4) Disseminating information and upscaling; 5) Capacity Building. The Indo-German Solar energy Partnership (IGSEP) project is commissioned by the German Government under its German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI) is being implemented by GIZ in cooperation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Government of India, to facilitate and expedite the rooftop sector development in India.