Indian Oil an Indian state owned oil and gas company operating 24000 petrol pumps with market share of 50% in the oil and gas industry is known for delivering most affordable energy to the world. The environmental objective of this includes reducing its carbon footprints, become water positive and manage waste responsibly. In order to contribute more it has planned to go green by installing solar systems on its petrol pumps and supporting the environment in a positive direction and in this mission it has succeeded to achieve the goal of 2000 petrol pumps till now.

IOCL Solar Subsidy Policy includes offering  subsidies which is upto 50% on installation of solar PV making the initial investment of installing Solar goes down. Investment in solar helps in saving taxes too as one can enjoy the benefit of accelerated depreciation. Since most petrol pumps offer only day time operations, grid-tie solar systems become easy options for these pumps. The grid tie systems offer 98% efficiency in deriving solar power and eliminate the use of batteries completely thereby saving space and costs too. Also use of solar energy is a clean form energy offering reduction in pollution.

Statcon Energiaa is an empanelled vendor for IOCL and in association with IOCL for retail outlets as well as their industrial grade plants. Statcon Energiaa has got the project of Supplying  of more than 1000 inverters (OFF-GRID Solar Inverter, HYBRID & GRID TIE) to IOCL ROs. More than 600 KWp SPV plant installed at different locations of IOCL sites. Some Successful Petrol Pump Projects installed By Statcon Energiaa are India Oil Corporation Limited, Punjab  190 KWp  GRID-TIE, India Oil Corporation Limited, Guwahati (Installing) 100 KWp GRID-TIE , India Oil Corporation Limited,Allahabad 90 KWp GRID-TIE, India Oil Corporation Limited, Patna  100 KWp GRID-TIE, India Oil Corporation Limited, Leh (Installed) 100 KWp HYBRID and there is a more in this journey to come.

Policy Guidelines

1. Eligibility

All existing KSKs & ROs, both ‘A’ & ‘B’ sites, selling an average of 25 KLPM or more during the preceding 12 months are eligible for availing the subsidy, limited to the SO wise allocation for KSKs and ROs. Also if any Dealer achieves 300 KL sale in less than preceding 12 months, they will automatically become eligible to avail the subsidy facility an achievement of the threshold sales volumes.

2. Subsidy Methodology

A typical solar power generating system primarily comprises three components i.e. solar panel, inverter and battery. Further, solar PV systems can be of two types i.e Grid Tied System with battery backup and Grid Tied System without battery backup where the power generated from solar system is fed directly into the grid and offset against unit consumption from the grid power provider.

Schema of Subsidy amount for Grid Tied Solar PV system with battery back-up is as under:

TABLE 1 – ‘GRID-TIED’ SYSTEM WITH BATTERY BACK-UP

System CAP in KWp	Total Cost of the system	% subsidy proposed for different capacity	Ceiling of subsidy (in Rs) round off
3	Rs 3,35,000	50	Rs 1,67,500
5	Rs 4,35,000	50	Rs 2,17,500
7	Rs 6,30,000	40	Rs 2,52,000
10	Rs 7,75,000	40	Rs 3,10,000

Schema of subsidy amount for Grid Tied Solar PV system without battery is as under:

TABLE 2- ‘GRID-TIED’ SYSTEM WITHOUT BATTERY BACK-UP

System CAP in KWp	Total Cost of the system	% subsidy proposed for different capacity	Ceiling of subsidy (in Rs) round off
3	Rs 2,47,500	50	Rs 1,23,750
5	Rs 3,47,500	50	Rs 1,73,750
7	Rs 4,97,500	40	Rs 1,99,000
10	Rs 6,42,500	40	Rs 2,57,000

3. PERIODICITY OF SUBSIDY: Once in Dealership tenure

4. TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR SUBSIDY

1. For availing solar subsidy, Dealers will be required to engage Category 1 solar PV vendors empanelled by Alternate Energy and Sustainable Development (AE & SD) Departments, CO from their respective IOC Regional Office jurisdiction only for undertaking the solarisation work at outlet. The updated list can be sourced by the Divisional Office from time to time or can be downloaded from the relevant section of IOC website iocl.com. The Divisional Office to ensure circulation of the updated list of empanelled solar PV vendors of their own Region to dealers initially and as and when the list is revised by AE & SD Department.
2. Dealers opting for solar subsidy should attempt to connect all DUs, canopy lights and yard lights with the solar PV system. Exceptions due to the space constraint on capacity of solar PV system can however be considered by the Divisional Office and the same is to be recorded, in writing, while granting approval
3. Solar vendor should provide the respective dealers with a specific design calculation of solarisation required for each outlet depending on the nozzle sale, load shedding hours, connected load peak load, etc
4. Guidelines on solar PV system and components specifications, provided by IOC AE & SD Department, As and when guidelines on specifications shall be revised by our AE&SD department, the same shall be applicable for provision of solar under the subsidy schema
5. Subsidy amount will be disbursed to the dealers after final completion of job and submission of the following

• Installation report from the solar vendor mentioning inter alia.

1. Capacity of the solar system installed
2. Make and model of Solar Panel, Inverter and Battery along with their installed capacity
3. Copy of the design calculation determining requirement of the solar system for the particular Outlet, which is required to be submitted by the vendor to the dealer before undertaking the job

• Photograph of the installed solar PV system
• Payment receipt from the empanelled solar PV vendor
• Installation checklist prepared by Field Officer and DO engineer
• The above to be verified before releasing subsidy payment with the items/specs mentioned in the invoice/quotation.

6. The subsidy amount to be approved disbursed should be lower of:

• Vendor bill amount multiplied with the % of subsidy applicable for the installed capacity deployed mentioned in Table 1 (for ‘Grid- tied’ with battery system) & table 2 (for ‘Grid-tied’ without battery system) above.

5. CAPPING OF CAPACITY OF SOLAR PV SYSTEM W.R.T. SUBSIDY APPLICABILITY

1. For KSKs, subsidy will be capped at 5 KW system, i.e. even if solar PV system of higher than 5 KW is installed, subsidy amount will be limited to the amount for 5 KW for the type of system installed.
2. For Retail Outlets, subsidy will be capped at 10 KW system, even if solar PV system of higher than 10KW is installed, subsidy amount will be limited to the amount for 10KW for the type of system installed.

6.COMMISSIONING OF NEW KSKs WITH SOLARIZATION

New KSK Dealers can opt for IOCL soft as per the prevalent solar loan policy at the time of commissioning.

Currently, as per the policy in vague, existing Outlets are eligible for loan facility after.

1. Six months of operation.
2. On achieving average monthly sale of 25KL.

The above eligibility criteria of sales and period of operation will be waived for the new KSKs to be commissioned with solar PV system through IOC Loan facility

Under this scenario, loan will be permitted for up to maximum 5 KW solar PV systems

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Type of Solar PV System:

With upcoming concept of demand based varying grid electricity tariff at different point of time during a day, high cost of running DGs during grid outages and highly fluctuating load thus requiring energy storage solution / power banking through net-metering, following two options are recommended for solar PV Systems at Retail Outlets:

1. Grid-Tied Solar PV Plant with On-grid Inverters and without Battery back-up

for ROs where the quality and availability of Grid is reliable and Net metering facility is also in place. The block  diagram is as below

This system works only when Grid or DG is available in parallel to Solar PV Plant as the On-grid inverters require reference from Grid/DG to generate power in synchronization with Grid/DG. Hence, this system does not eliminate use of DG completely.

B. Grid-Tied Solar Power Plant with Hybrid Inverters and Battery back-up for ROS where the quality and availability of Grid is poor. Hybrid solar inverters are connected with solar, batteries and grid to supply in parallel with grid when the same is available as well as when grid is not available. These inverters are having capabilities as below:

Can operate in synchronization with Grid with power export facility deactivated  when net-metering is not available and with power export facility activated when net-metering is available. Can operate in synchronization with DG with power export facility deactivated.

(iii) Are bidirectional to allow charging of batteries from solar as well as from Grid/DG.

(iv) Can operate as stand alone system using the battery when Grid is not available.

With this system DG shall be required to be operated only when grid unavailability is for a Period longer than the designed battery backup period. The block diagram is as below:

Capacity Of Solar PV System:

Recommended System Capacity vis-a-vis various system capacities mentioned in policy of dealer subsidy are as below:

A. Grid-Tied Solar PV Plant with On-grid Inverters and without Battery Back-up:

System Capacity in kWp*(Min. Solar PV DC Capacity)	3	5	7	10	15
Minimum Inverter Capacity** in KVA	3	5	7	10	15

B. Grid-Tied Solar Power Plant with hybrid Inverters and Battery back-up:

System Capacity in kWp*(Min. Solar PV DC Capacity)	3	5	7	10	15
Minimum Inverter Capacity** in KVA	5.0	7.5	10.0	15.0	20.0
Minimum battery Capacity***@80% DOD in kWh	12	12	24	36	48

NOTE:

* Solar PV DC capacity may be increased in case of higher rooftop / space availability for laying solar modules, etc.

** Grid-Tied Solar PV Plant with On-grid Inverters operate in synchronization of grid and high current requirement during starting of Dispensing Units (DUs) / other inductive loads such as air compressors,  ACs, etc. can be delivered by Inverter and grid collectively. Hence, inverter capacity equal to Solar PV DC capacity shall suffice.

However, Grid-Tied Solar Power Plants with Hybrid Inverters are also required to operate as stand-alone system with batteries during Grid/DG unavailability. Hence, inverter capacity has been recommended to be more than Solar PV DC capacity to deliver high current requirement during starting of DUs / other inductive loads. Inverter of capacity even higher than recommended above may be taken in cases where peak requirement is more due to higher starting current or higher no. of DUs / other inductive loads.

*** Battery capacity has been recommended to take care of minimum 2 hours of

backup which shall be charged first from Solar generation available and then from Grid. Battery capacity has been recommended considering continuous operation of all loads. However, during day time with available Solar PV generation and no lighting load, the back-up time shall be longer. Although the capacity and technical specifications have been given for Lead—Acid Battery, EPC Contractor may propose utilization of Lithium-ion Battery and Dealer can opt for the same after evaluation of techno-commercial benefits at his end.