KSEB unions welcome draft regulations
Left and Congress-backed unions in the KSEB on Wednesday described the proposals as timely and vital for resolving issues posed by the rapid scale-up of solar power capacity in Kerala. The unions aired their views on the penultimate day of the public hearings organised by the commission on the draft.
Over 70% of the solar power generated during daytime was being exported to the grid by prosumers, they said. The cost of having to accommodate this excess energy plays havoc with the KSEB's scheduled power agreements and finances. A situation has now arisen where the gains made by the prosumer population of around 2 lakh are coming at the expense of the entire 1.4 crore electricity consumers of the KSEB, they said.
The unions welcomed the proposal to limit the net metering system to 3 kW, but called for more studies on new technologies such as peer-to-peer trading (P2P).
Observing that Kerala's solar capacity has grown by 275% over the past two years, the Left-backed KSEB Officers' Association (KSEBOA) welcomed the commission's efforts to encourage energy storage systems through the draft regulations.
Welcoming the draft proposals, the KSEB Workers' Association, affiliated to the CITU, called for constructive solutions to balance the requirements of the prosumers and ordinary consumers of the KSEB. The association, however, pointed out that there is a need to correct the propaganda that the draft is against the prosumers.
The Kerala Power Board Officers Federation and the INTUC-backed Kerala Electricity Employees Confederation said urgent measures are needed to address the challenges posed by excess injection of solar power into the grid. At the same time, the new investors in the renewable energy sector needs to be encouraged.
A demand was also made at the hearing that the commission set a ceiling on the cost of installing solar plants.
The series of public hearings held by the commission on the draft will conclude on Thursday.
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