ONE-DAY TRAINING PROGRAMME ON GRID-CONNECTED ROOFTOP SOLAR PV SYSTEMS: for Banks and Financial Institutions

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) under its Management Development Programmes (MDPs) organized a one-day training programme (second in the series) on ‘Grid-connected Rooftop Solar PV Systems’ for Banks and Financial Institutions/Investment Firms on January 22, 2016 at TERI, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The training programme was designed in a way to enable the target groups (exclusively for the public and private sector banks and financial institutions/investment farms) to understand technical, financial, and regulatory aspects, including standards and quality control, technoeconomic assessment, risk assessment and evaluation of loan applications, and RBI’s notification of priority sector lending-targets and classifications for rooftop solar PV systems.

Practitioners and renowned industry experts from TERI, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), EE&REM Centre of Government of NCT of Delhi, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Reliance Capital, and SunSource Energy presented their views and shared experiences on implementing and financing aspects of rooftop PV systems. Twenty-seven officials from various public and private banks and financial institutions, such as State Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, NABARD, Yes Bank, GIZ, ICICI Lombard, etc., attended this training programme. The event was concluded with a valedictory session and distribution of certificates to the participants.

During the programme, the participants highlighted some issues and put forward some suggestions including: (i) Policy uncertainties at the national-level; (ii) MNRE may publish the list of third-party inspectors as empanelled under GCRT programme; (iii) To include hybrid solar PV system with battery storage while considering proper safety norms (for grid-connectivity as per CEA norms) under GCRT scheme, as it is not clear in the net-metering regulations as published by the various Indian states; and (iv) MNRE shall conduct/organize such training programmes at the regional-level pan India, may be 2–3 days extensive programmes covering policy, regulatory, and technical aspects of grid-connected rooftop solar PV power plants. Overall, the programme was a success and was highly appreciated by the participants and the speakers.

Source: Akshay Urja Magazine, MNRE