Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has notified guidelines for implementing ‘Central Financial Assistance’ & ‘Payment Security Mechanism’ components of the scheme.

Key Highlights of Guidelines

• Models for installation of rooftop solar plants (RTS) for consumers:
  • Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) Model: 
    • RTS plants are procured,installed, & maintained by a RESCO (private body), & consumers pay a tariff for consumption.
    • RESCO may sell excess power to DISCOM under a Power Purchase Agreement.
  • Utility Led Aggregation Model (ULA) Model: DISCOM, state government/state-owned entities install solar projects on behalf of households.
• Central Financial Assistance (CFA): To be given to 1 crore residential consumers for rooftop solar installations.
  • Eligibility: RTS plant must be grid-connected & tagged to a residential power connection of local DISCOM.
    • Solar modules must be domestically manufactured & existing RTS are not eligible for CFA.
    • For the ULA Model, it is limited to households with installations up to 3 kW. 
• Payment Security Mechanism: For de-risking investments in RESCO based models by ensuring timely payments to RESCO.
  • A corpus of Rs 100 crore is established, managed by National Project Implementation Agency.
  • The corpus can be supplemented by additional grants or funds with approval from Ministry.