Delhi aims to meet annual electricity demand through solar power

The Delhi government's solar policy, which will be announced next month, aims to meet 25% of the city's annual electricity demand with clean energy by 2025, according to Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot. Gahlot announced in the assembly, while presenting his first budget as finance minister, an allocation of Rs 3.34 billion for the power sector, up from Rs 33.4 billion last year, and highlighted that electricity rates have not been increased in the last eight years. The Delhi government has treated providing minimum electricity to every household in Delhi as a fundamental right, he said in the assembly. By 2022-23, approximately 84% of Delhi's 58.5 lakh domestic consumers had taken advantage of the Delhi government's electricity subsidy scheme. Gahlot stated that the government's Solar Policy will be announced next month, and that it will establish Delhi as a national leader in solar energy. The Delhi Solar Policy 2022 aims to meet 25 per cent of Delhi's annual electricity demand through solar energy by 2025, which currently stands at nine per cent, the minister said. To achieve this, the policy has set a target of installing solar infrastructure with a capacity of 6,000 MW by 2025, which will include 750 MW of 'Roof Top Solar' (RTS), he said. The policy also aims to generate around 12,000 green jobs in the national capital, Gahlot said. He claimed that the Delhi government has set an example for the rest of the world by establishing EV (electric vehicle) charging stations with the lowest charging tariffs, and that 30 charging stations will be opened this month. The minimum cost for EV charging is only Rs 3 per kWh, which is the lowest EV charging tariff. First 11 of 100 EV charging stations were inaugurated on October 18, 2022. Another 30 charging stations will be launched in March 2023 and the rest in the next financial year, Gahlot said. According to him, the city will get nearly 900 EV charging stations and 103 battery swapping stations. The finance minister said that in 2021-22, 84% of the city's 58.5 lakh domestic consumers took advantage of the Delhi government's electricity subsidy scheme, and that the city met its peak power demand of 7,695 MW units on June 29 last year with zero load-shedding. The aggregate technical and commercial losses of Delhi is now the lowest in the whole country at less than eight per cent, he said. See also: Ahmedabad leads the way in solar energy use with 34,794 usersNLC establishes green energy joint venture with Assam Discom