Kerala State Electricity Board to study how solar penetration has impacted State’s power system

Amid its battle against a summer-season power crisis, the Kerala State Electricity Board is setting out to examine how the growth of solar power has impacted Kerala’s power system.

Amid its battle against a summer-season power crisis, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is setting out to examine how the growth of solar power has impacted Kerala’s power system.

Rapid solar penetration in recent years has also given rise to issues that are both technical and financial in nature. The KSEB has now formed a nine-member panel headed by the Deputy Chief Engineer (System Operation Circle, Kalamassery) to study six aspects linked to the topic.

The panel’s terms of reference span the impact of solar power plants and renewable generation in general on power quality in the low tension (LT) system, technical issues connected to transformers arising from the installation of solar power plants and commercial aspects linked to the amendments proposed in the draft Renewable Energy and Net Metering Regulations.

The panel has been created on the basis of a recommendation by the Chief Engineer, KSEB (Commercial and Tariff) for a “detailed field study” in this regard. It has been directed to hand over its report by June 10.

Aided by schemes such as the Soura rooftop solar, the combined installed capacity of solar power plants in Kerala had touched 1,000 megawatts (MW) earlier this year. Rooftop solar units account for the major chunk of the capacity, followed by terrestrial units. The emphasis on solar power has also given rise to a category of ‘prosumers’ – electricity consumers who also generate power from solar and other renewable energy sources and sell it to the grid.

The KSEB study also comes at a time when Kerala, according to the 2024-25 State Budget, has set the target of meeting 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2027.