PM Surya Ghar: MNRE Issues Norms For Projects Under RESCO

PM Surya Ghar: MNRE Issues Norms For Projects Under RESCO

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has now come up with its operational guidelines to implement the PM Surya Ghar scheme under the RESCO model. The new norms talk about the Payment Security Mechanism and disbursement of central subsidies under the regime.

Under the RESCO model, renewable energy usually takes up the onus of capital investment and ownership of solar plants either for a partial period or a full period. The new MNRE norms said that to undertake the mission under RESCO mode, there will be a dedicated corpus of Rs 100 crore for the Payment Security Mechanism.

“There will be a corpus of Rs 100 crore for a Payment Security Mechanism that would be managed and administered by the NPIA in an interest-bearing bank account. ULA proposals from State/UT governments can access the PSM-RTS in order to provide payment security for projects in which RESCO partners have been contracted with, through an open transparent bidding process for tariff discovery,’ the norms said.

Under this arrangement, the ULA-selected RESCO will contribute to the PSM Corpus through a one-time PSM fee of Rs 2000/installation to be undertaken by it under the ULA (Utility-led Aggregation). The MNRE norms said that the NPIA in these conditions, will enter into a bilateral agreement with the State designated entity for timely and regular settlement of RESCO dues.

“The Utility shall settle the claims of the RESCO partner; however, in case of failure to make payments within 15 days of raising of claims, the NPIA shall make the necessary payments to the RESCO vendor as per the RESCO-Utility agreement. The NPIA shall simultaneously raise the request to the ULA for settlement of the dues along with interest,” the norms said.