Delhi Budget: 25% power demand to be met by solar panels by 2025

The Delhi government, he said, has allocated ₹3,348 crore to the power sector for the financial year 2023-24, barely unchanged from the ₹3,340 crore allocated last year.

The Capital’s solar policy will be notified next month, Delhi finance minister Kailash Gahlot said during the state Budget address on Wednesday, adding that the city will look to generate 25% of its energy needs through solar panels by 2025.

Solar panels (Pexels)

The Delhi government, he said, has allocated ₹3,348 crore to the power sector for the financial year 2023-24, barely unchanged from the ₹3,340 crore allocated last year.

The allocation for the coming year is 0.23% higher than last year’s.

Delhi currently meets only 9% of its power demand through renewable sources, said Gahlot.

“In December 2022, the Delhi government notified the draft Solar Policy of Delhi, which will establish Delhi as a leading example for the country in the field of solar energy. The policy aims to meet 25% of Delhi’s annual electricity demand through solar energy by 2025, which currently stands at 9%,” Gahlot said during his speech.

“To achieve this, the policy has set a target of installing solar infrastructure with a capacity of 6,000MW by 2025, which will include 750 MW of rooftop solar (RTS),” he said, adding that the policy will create around 12,000 green jobs in Delhi.

Gahlot flagged the state government’s key power subsidy programme and underlined that Delhi was able to meet its peak power demand “without any supply cuts”.

Around 84% of Delhi’s 5.85 million domestic consumers availed the Delhi government’s subsidy scheme, he said.

“Delhi successfully met its peak power demand of 7,695MW on June 29, 2022 with zero load shedding. I would like to inform the house that the electricity rates in Delhi have not been increased in the last eight years.” said Gahlot.

Speaking on the front of creating infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs), Gahlot said the government had created a ‘revolution’ over the last few years, with it also awarding India’s largest and first Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) tender for setting up EV charging stations.

This will consist of creating 100 EV charging stations that will have 900 EV charging points, along with 103 battery swapping stations.

“The chief minister has already inaugurated the first 11 of these 100 EV charging stations in October 2022. Another 30 charging stations will be launched in March 2023 and rest in the upcoming financial year.” he said.

Gahlot further said the lowest EV charging cost of ₹3 per unit was available at these charging stations.

“On calculating we find that the running cost of an electric two-wheeler is just 7 paisa per kilometre, while it is ₹1.75 per kilometre for a petrol scooter. For an electric three-wheeler, the cost is just 8 paisa per kilometre, while for a CNG three-wheeler it is ₹2.62 per kilometre. Meanwhile, the running cost of a four-wheeler electric vehicle is just 33 paisa per kilometre, and around ₹7 for a petrol-powered four-wheeler. This is nothing less than a revolution.” Gahlot said, stating the funds in the sector will be utilised to continue EV infrastructure development, to meet rising power demand and to provide the Delhi government electric subsidy.

Load shedding is the exercise to stop supply of electricity in an area to balance the supply and demand. However, Delhi generates surplus electricity and therefore, undertakes zero load shedding. A government official said power cuts in Delhi are only on account of either a local fault, or in order to carry out planned maintenance.