HP tapped less than one per cent of its solar power potential CAG

Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report said that Himachal Pradesh has been able to tap less than one per cent of its solar power potential.

According to the report HP has installed 3.29 MW solar power till March 2015 against its potential of 33,000 MW. The report also stated that Himachal Pradesh Energy Development Agency failed to estimate the total solar potential of the state.

With the financial assistance of the Union ministry of new and renewable energy, the agency had installed solar observatories in Solan and Palampur towns in June 2014 for measurement of solar potential, but that remained an unfinished job until August last year.

The state-run Himachal Pradesh Energy Development Agency installed 956 LED type SPV Street lights at a cost of Rs.1.59 crore in 2009-10 in 10 districts which it bought from Ritika Systems Private Ltd. However, the report noticed that 426 LED lighting systems have not been working since November 2014. The report also stated that the agency has not taken any step to make the system function till May 2015 that a comprehensive maintenance contract was signed between the Agency and Ritika Systems Private Ltd.

CAG in its report pointed out at the loopholes in the distribution of solar lanterns by the agency in the tribal areas of the State. The agency distributed 596 solar lanterns in June 2014 to 417 families of the same villages that it distributed earlier.

According to IANS Inspection showed that 393 lanterns costing Rs.10.32 lakh distributed among the villagers were not put to use as they were using the lanterns already provided to them earlier.

The agency delayed by 20 months in commissioning the ministry of new and renewable energy’s solar photovoltaic power plant of 200 KW at Baru Sahib in Sirmaur district. The plant was set up at a cost of Rs.5.40 crore and was completed in May 2011.

The CAG observed in its report that the State has a lone turbine which too has not been functional for six years, resulting in loss of over Rs.40 lakh.