Two Mandya dist colleges bask in solar power glory

Self-sufficient institutions sell excess energy to Cesc

At a time when the State is staring at power scarcity, some colleges in the region have come forward to contribute to the grid by harnessing solar energy.

Usually, educational institutions have huge spaces exposed to the sun and have a potential to generate solar power. But, finances are a constraint. So, the institutions are making use of the 30% subsidy granted by the government for ‘Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Power Plants’ and are mobilising their own funds for Solar Photo Voltaic Rooftop (SPVRT) systems.

While Maharaja Institute of Technology (MIT) near Mysuru, located at Belavadi village in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district, has installed a 100 KiloWatt Peak (KWp) solar power plant, Bharathi Education Trust, in Bharathi Nagar village, Maddur taluk, also in Mandya district, has installed a plant of similar capacity.

Affected by insufficient and errant power supply from Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (Cesc), these institutions decided to go solar in order to meet their power needs. They have entered into Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with the Cesc to produce solar electricity and sell the excess power to the grid at Rs 9.56 per unit for 25 years.

A one KWp power plant is expected to generate an average of 5.1 units of electricity (kWh) per day. Considering 310 sunny days, assuming that 55 days in a year could be cloudy, the one KWp plant is expected to produce 1,581 electrical units per year. So, for a 100 KWp plant, the approximate annual solar power generation will be 1,58,100 kWh.

A one KWp plant occupies 10’X10’ (1 square) shadow-free area, provided the solar PV modules generate electricity at 15% to 16% efficiency. If the efficiency is 10% to 12%, a shadow-free area of 1.4 squares to 1.5 squares is required to instal a one KWp plant.

Former MLC and working president of Bharathi Education Trust, Madhu G Madegowda, said, “There are over 10,000 students in the institutions from kindergarten to PG courses and engineering on our campuses. We have been paying Rs 1.5 lakh as power bill to the Cesc every month. Now, we save this amount, by using 300 units generated from our SPVRT systems at G Madegowda Engineering College, and sell the remaining 200 units to the Cesc. We sell the whole 500 units generated on holidays to the Cesc. Now, we have plans to instal similar systems at our Hanumanthanagar and Kirugavalu campuses also.”