Fix accountability for delay in solar net metering: Prosumer

Panaji: While the state government talks about promoting renewable energy, the electricity department appears to be taking its own sweet time to process applications for net metering of solar power plants.
A resident from Corlim was forced to run from pillar to post for the last two and a half months to convince department officials to certify his solar power plant and provide grid connectivity.
The resident, Vincent Fonseca, was forced to approach chief electrical engineer Stephen Fernandes to get his application processed. An irked Fonseca, who had chosen to forego the government subsidy, demanded that Fernandes fix accountability for the delay.
He said that the “apathy and lacklustre attitude” of the power department has caused a tremendous loss to him.
“The loss has also been caused to the government where approximately about 25 to 30 units of power generated in a day is lost due to gross negligence, apathy and lacklustre attitude of the officers of the department,” Fonseca said in his complaint to Fernandes on December 6.
On August 11, Fonseca filed an application with the power department for installation of a solar power plant but the provisional approval was granted only on September 14.
Fonseca subsequently signed the grid connectivity agreement on October 19 but the sub-divisional engineer for the Corlim sub-division failed to carry out the plant inspection and submit the inspection report.
TOI reached out to the power department’s senior officials who confirmed to TOI that the grid connectivity approval was granted recently.
“The grid connectivity takes only five days. We will look into the matter and see why it was delayed,” said a senior executive engineer.