PM Surya Ghar Feasibility Demo

Three fixes to make PM Surya Ghar work for India's apartment cities — working prototype attached

===================================================

Respected Shri Pralhad Joshi ji,

I write as a 90-plus-year-old Mumbai resident who has followed PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana with great hope. The Ministry's plan to launch a WhatsApp bot that lets a household estimate its subsidy, cost and savings is an excellent idea, and I congratulate you on it.

[  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/renewables/govt-plans-whatsapp-bot-for-pm-surya-ghar-scheme-to-help-households-estimate-subsidies-costs-and-savings/articleshow/131491419.cms ]

But the bot, as conceived, will quietly disappoint the crores of families it should serve most: those living in multi-storey buildings in our cities. I first set this out in my blog of 15 February 2024, "Surya Ghar: Missing the Wood for the Trees," and the gap has only widened since.

THE BLIND SPOT, IN REAL NUMBERS

A 3 kW system needs about 300 sq ft of clear terrace. A city building's terrace simply cannot provide that for every flat. In February 2024 I surveyed five Mumbai buildings myself:

-  Andheri: 24 flats, 1,500 sq ft terrace, enough for about 5 flats

-  Vile Parle: 20 flats, 1,500 sq ft, about 3 flats

-  Powai: 54 flats, 3,000 sq ft, about 10 flats

-  Kandivali: 16 flats, 2,200 sq ft, about 7 flats

-  Chandivali: 49 flats, 2,000 sq ft, about 7 flats

In every case the terrace serves barely 10 to 20 per cent of flats. From my own 10th-floor window in Andheri I look down upon a hundred terraces and cannot spot even one rooftop installation. Set against the more than 26 lakh installations the Ministry has reported to Parliament, the message is plain: the scheme is succeeding in independent houses and bypassing urban apartments almost entirely.

I therefore urge three connected changes, all demonstrated in the working prototype I attach as Annexure A:

1.  LET THE BOT TELL THE TRUTH. Driven by the consumer / bill number (which the DISCOM already holds), it should compute the required kW, the terrace that kW demands, and weigh it against the terrace available per flat, returning an honest FEASIBLE or NOT FEASIBLE rather than false hope.

2.  FOR THE MAJORITY WHO CANNOT FIT A ROOFTOP, SUPPLY THE POWER FROM ELSEWHERE. Let REC / CPSE / SPVs build large solar farms (about 1 GW each) on government land near each city, feed that power to the local DISCOM free of cost, and let the DISCOM supply multi-storey families at a small carrying charge: a society-level rooftop plant for what the terrace allows, and the city solar farm for the balance. Then every eligible family gets solar power, not merely the few on the top floor.

3.  STOP ASKING CITIZENS TO "APPLY" AT ALL. This is the heart of the matter. The registration form asks for State, DISCOM, consumer number, mobile and email, every one of which the DISCOM already has. In seconds, a DISCOM can list every consumer whose 12-month average is below 300 units, tabulate them building by building, and send each one a pre-filled message: "You qualify. Reply YES for a site survey, NO to opt out." For those without email, a line on the next monthly bill, flagged by SMS, will do. No forms, no data re-entry, and no eligible family left out.

A bot, and a scheme, that tell a citizen the truth and then point to the route that actually works will earn far more trust, and will turn this Yojana into a genuine benchmark for the Global South.

The attached prototype (Annexure A) demonstrates all three ideas, using the five real buildings above; tapping any one shows the honest verdict and the two-part supply route in a single click.

I would be honoured if the Ministry would consider these suggestions.

With deep respect and warm regards,

Hemen Parekh

Mumbai

www.hemenparekh.in

==========================================================================

PM Surya Ghar : Muft Bijli Yojana  ·  Working Prototype

Rooftop Solar — Feasibility & the Honest Path Forward

Before promising subsidy and savings, the scheme must answer one question first: can your rooftop actually hold the panels you need — and if not, how else do you get solar power?

Annexure to representation by Hemen Parekh, Mumbai

What this demonstrates. An enhancement to the planned PM Surya Ghar WhatsApp bot, built around a point I first set out in my blog of 15 February 2024. The bot should (1) run an honest terrace-area feasibility test; (2) where an individual rooftop cannot fit, route the family to a society plant plus city-solar-farm supply; and (3) ultimately need no "application" at all, because the DISCOM already holds every consumer's data. This standalone file demonstrates the logic; the live version would draw on real DISCOM data.

The blind spot — five real Mumbai buildings I surveyed

Not hypotheticals. Actual figures I gathered in February 2024. Tap any building to load it into the calculator below.

Locality	Units / month	Flats	Terrace (sq ft)	Flats it can serve
Andheri	450	24	1,500	5 of 24 (21%)
Vile Parle	500	20	1,500	3 of 20 (15%)
Powai	350	54	3,000	10 of 54 (19%)
Kandivali	350	16	2,200	7 of 16 (44%)
Chandivali	220	49	2,000	7 of 49 (14%)

Across these five buildings, the terrace can serve barely 10–20% of flats. The other 80–90% of urban families have nowhere to put a panel. ↑ Tap a row to test it.

1Your connection

City / TownMumbaiDelhiPuneBengaluruHyderabadChennai

Electricity Provider (DISCOM)Adani ElectricityTata PowerBEST

Consumer Number / Latest Bill Number

In production: the bot reads your monthly consumption and address straight from this bill — in fact, the DISCOM need not ask at all (see the panel below). For this demo, please enter the few fields below.

2Your home

Average monthly consumption (units / kWh)

Type of dwelling

The bigger fix — missing the wood for the trees

Why ask anyone to "apply" at all?

The registration form asks the citizen for State, DISCOM, consumer number, mobile and email — every one of which the DISCOM already holds. The whole "apply on the portal" model is back-to-front. Let the DISCOM drive it instead:

1

In seconds, the DISCOM queries its own database for every consumer whose 12-month average is under 300 units — the eligibility line — and tabulates them building by building.

2

It runs the feasibility test above for each building, and sends eligible consumers a pre-filled message: "You qualify. Reply YES for a site survey, NO to opt out." No form, no data re-entry.

3

For flats a rooftop cannot serve, the same message offers the city-solar-farm supply route — so every eligible family gets an answer, not just the lucky few on the top floor.

Prototype prepared for Hemen Parekh as an annexure to a representation to the Hon'ble Minister,

 Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

A self-contained demonstration of logic only — figures are illustrative. The production system would

 integrate live DISCOM billing data and state net-metering rules.

www.hemenparekh.in