Jaipur: State govt is solarising its electricity demand for drinking water-supply network with 505MW planned under virtual and group net metering framework.PHED is the largest consumer among govt departments, accounting for 2,082 lakh units a month, paying an average bill of Rs 183 crore.As part of the process, which is currently underway, Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur discoms will have projects of 201MW, 158MW and 146MW capacities, respectively.Rajasthan has 93,374 PHED electricity connections as of Nov 2025, according to the state’s Economic Review. The proposed model seeks to aggregate this scattered demand rather than install a separate solar plant at every pumping station or water-supply point.“The first demonstration has already come from Barmer, where RRECL commissioned an 850-kW solar plant on Aug 18 to serve 74 PHED connections under a single Group Net Metering (GNM) arrangement. RRECL is treating the project as proof of the concept for large-scale solarisation of dispersed govt connections,” said Rohit Gupta, CMD of RRECL at an event of National Federation of Engineers.Under the VNM model, ground-mounted solar plants can be located near suitable substations, with the electricity generated injected into the grid and the corresponding units credited against the consumption of PHED connections at multiple locations. This is particularly suited to PHED because its pumping stations and water-supply installations are spread across the state.The projects are being developed under the RESCO model, under which private developers finance, build and operate the plants for 25 years, reducing govt’s upfront capital requirement.RRECL has estimated that the 500-MW PHED component could generate savings of around Rs 6,000 crore over 25 years, or roughly Rs 20 crore a month, by lowering the cost of electricity used for water-supply operations. The larger govt solarisation programme, covering both PHED and departmental buildings, has been projected to save nearly Rs 10,000 crore over 25 years. After the solarisation of PHED connections, ICDS operations are expected to be the next major focus.
