The 20% reduction in energy demand seen in India due to the COVID-19 lockdown could draw out favourable conditions for solar firms working in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector, according to a prominent Indian developer.
Along with national energy demand plummeting, consumers are also more likely to default on payments at present, Adarsh Das, co-founder and CEO of Indian rooftop solar developer SunSource Energy, told PV Tech. This is expected to significantly hurt India’s distribution companies (Discoms), most of which are already in the red.
“We predict an increase in the commercial and industrial grid tariff in the country to rescue the Discoms, which will open up a unique opportunity for the distributed solar companies who are focused on C&I segment,” said Das.
C&I solar has been the fastest mover in India’s rooftop PV sector over the last four years, amongst other measures by offering factories and industries ways of improving their bottom line through savings on power from the grid. By contrast, the residential rooftop sector has been slower to pick up.
