Solar Power Gradings
MNRE Gradings
The Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission (JNNSM) launched in January 2010 is a Government of India (GoI) and State Governments initiative to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India's energy security challenge. It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global effort to meet the challenges of climate change
With an objective to make solar off-grid projects commercially viable and workable on a sustainable basis, the mission envisages to provide capital and interest rate subsidies. A critical requirement for Wide-scale and meaningful implementation of the mission would be involvement of only credible channel partners, as their capability to provide technical support to project developers and execute projects in a timely manner would have an impact on the achievement of the mission's objectives.
In order to ensure that only the capable and well-meaning channel partners are allowed in the sector, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has mandated that all such entities get an accreditation by reputed rating agencies engaged by the ministry.
ICRA's accreditation process would categorise the entities participating in the JNNSM into grades based on various parameters. The grading assigned would facilitate in identification of channel partners which have the capacity and capability to undertake such projects. This benchmarking exercise would act as an effective tool for identifying the stronger entities in the sector and also enable the channel partners to showcase their capability in executing projects to various other stakeholders like lenders, customer, suppliers and community groups. The grading process will also function as a tool to monitor performance capability over time, incentivize efficient players and at the same time penalize weaker performance, The grading would also provide a tool for comparison of these channel partners through a rational and objective framework and a uniformly applicable scale.
ICRA's grading will reflect "The performance capability and financial strength of the channel partner to undertake off-grid solar projects". The grading would be done for channel partners like Renewable Energy Service Providing Companies (RESCOs) and System Integrators (SIs).
The grading will be valid for a period of two years from initial exercise under Solar PV technology. In case of grading under solar thermal the grading will be valid for two years and date will be adjusted to 30th June or 31st December of that particular year subject to validity will not be more than two years.
