How Solar can help to reduce your electricity Bills
Paying your ever increasing electricity bills is a never ending struggle. This article gives you insights on how you can use the technology development in Solar Power to reduce your electricity bills for at-least next 25 years.
What is the discom charging you ?
Electricity to end consumer is provided by Discoms. There are 3 discoms in Rajasthan, divided on basis of area that supply electricity to you. These are Jaipur Vidhyut Vitram Nigam Ltd., Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitram Nigam Ltd. & Ajmer Vidhyut Vitram Nigam Ltd. Based on the city, you are located, power is supplied to you by one of these discoms. For consumers less than 1 MW, you donot have choice to buy power from anyone else but the discom providing power in your area. Hence, the rate at which the power is supplied to you is established by the government only and you end up paying rates as decided by government. In last 10 years, energy charges have always been on the increasing side.
Current Tariffs:
Your electricity bill has two main components, one is FIXED charge, applicable irrespective of amount of units consumed. This can also be called as Minimum Electricity bill that you need to pay whether or not you consume power. Second is ENERGY charge, that depends on units of electricity drawn from grid. This charge is not fixed and starts from a low price of INR 3.5 for domestic and increases to 6.5 as you keep on increasing usage. Additionally, there are other charges like : Electricity duty, Urban Cess & Water conservation cess, which add up and increase the ‘per unit rate’ by 0.7 INR/unit.
How Solar Can help you save on these electricity bills ?
When you install a solar power system for home (or Institution/Business), you create an alternate system of power generation that has capability to provide electricity for next 25 years. In India on average, one Kilowatt peak-rate capacity, Solar power system provides approximately 1500 units of electricity in an year.
So when you install one KWp of Solar power system, considering the average discom rate of 6.5 Rs/Unit, it saves an yearly expense of
- 1500 * 6.5 = INR 9,750 savings per year
( If rate is higher like 7.8 in case of Industrial or 8.8 in case of Commercial/Institutional, then savings are proportionately more.)
- 1500 * 7.8 = INR 11,700 savings per year
- 1500 * 8.8 = INR 13,200 savings per year
Considering that the average price of 1 Kilo-Watt peak of solar power system in Indian market is around 40,000 Rupees. This turns out as having a payback of 3.1 – 4.1 years.
Operations & Maintenance of Solar Power System
Solar Power systems are fairly easy to operate & maintain. The solar panels that produce electricity come with a 25 year warranty, and additional components like Inverter also come with upto 15 years warranty.
The only thing to consider is regarding the brand, you are choosing, whether it will still be in market 15-20 years down the line.
As far as daily operations & maintenance is concerned, solar panels require only regular cleaning by RO water/ clean drinking water once in a week or two.
