MSEDCL suggests high power demand from solar users causing outages, experts seek data

Nagpur: The installed solar capacity of Nagpur city has crossed 530 MW, placing it among the leaders in Maharashtra. Despite this gain in renewable energy, senior officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) suggest that the consumption pattern of solar users is leading to rise in power demand and additional stress on the grid. Solar experts have countered the claim and sought specific data from the state power distribution company.Aggressive promotion and subsidies from the Centre and the state have helped exapnd the rooftop solar installations in the city. As per MSEDCL data, the city has around 94,467 solar consumers across residential, commercial and industrial segments. Of them, 66,041 consumers are beneficiaries of the Centre's PM Surya Ghar Yojana, accounting for about 256 MW capacity. Officials said more than 24,000 applications for rooftop solar installations are currently in the pipeline.Despite the gains in renewable energy capacity, officials say they are facing operational challenges. A senior MSEDCL official said, "Rooftop solar systems generate electricity during the daytime between 9am and 5pm, but the usage by majority of these consumers peaks during night time, because of which the systems get overloaded," said the official.The official said this mismatch between generation and consumption is increasingly resulting in outages, "particularly between 6pm and 9pm when the demand increases sharply across the city". "Most of the breakdowns are taking place during night time. The second issue is the generation of harmonics in the system because of the injection of so much solar power. This creates fluctuation and breakdown in the system," said the official.MSEDCL acknowledged that addressing these issues will require significant upgrades to the existing distribution infrastructure, but cited financial constraints as a key hurdle. "Solar users must refrain from using excessive power, which will help reduce the load," said the official.Solar expert Sudhir Budhay rejected claims that rooftop solar is responsible for transformer overloading and increased total harmonic distortion (THD), calling them "broad assumptions without evidence." Budhay said the argument that net-metered consumers below 10 kW overload transformers is misleading, as rooftop solar impact is localised and depends on specific feeders and transformers. "Overloading can only be established through time-stamped load data, feeder studies and actual measurements, not general statements," he said. On THD, he noted that grid-connected inverters are designed to operate within prescribed standards. "Harmonics are a system-level issue influenced by multiple factors, including existing electronic loads," he said.He argued that such objections often stem from commercial concerns, as rooftop solar reduces utility power sales. "If there is a genuine issue, DISCOMs must present transformer-wise data and measured THD violations," he said, urging utilities to strengthen infrastructure instead of resisting solar adoption.
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