A hybrid pricing strategy for solar energy

Solar energy is emerging as a major source of renewable power in India due to government support. One of the key issues with renewable energy generation is that there is no generalized pricing method and each utility uses a different method for pricing energy. The proposed model gives a generalized method for determining energy price for generating companies, independent power producers, regulatory commissions etc. It incorporates both the economic and performance based factors related to power quality and reliability issues. Also a penalty for deviation from scheduled energy and CDM benefit are included in the model. The study explores average daily solar radiation and the power output of a typical solar generator of 20kW capacity operating in the state of TamilNadu, India. The model developed is applied to this 20kW solar generator for determining the electricity price. The co-relation between energy price and technical and economic parameters is explored. A comparison between the electricity price from the proposed model and the levelized cost is done.