Renewing
the Future

Envotech Energy's office is at 2A, Hastings Park Road, Alipore, Kolkata 700027. We serve industrial, commercial and institutional customers across Kolkata (including Alipore, Salt Lake, New Town–Rajarhat, Park Circus, Behala and Garden Reach), Howrah (including the Howrah industrial belt, Liluah, Bally, Domjur, Sankrail and Uluberia) and the rest of West Bengal, including Haldia, Durgapur, Asansol, Kharagpur, Kalyani and Siliguri.

A 100 kW rooftop solar plant in West Bengal typically needs about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet (roughly 750 to 930 square metres) of shadow-free roof area, or about 80 to 100 square feet per kilowatt. Metal-sheet roofs, where modules are mounted close to the roof slope, usually need less space than flat RCC roofs, where rows are tilted and spaced to avoid inter-row shading. Higher-wattage modules reduce the area further. In Kolkata and Howrah, a well-designed 100 kW plant generally produces in the region of 1.2 to 1.4 lakh units (kWh) a year. Envotech confirms the exact capacity, layout and generation estimate through a site survey and shading analysis.

Under the CAPEX model, the factory or business pays for the solar plant upfront, owns it from day one, keeps all the electricity savings and can claim eligible depreciation benefits; payback for commercial and industrial plants in Kolkata is often in the range of 3 to 5 years, depending on the electricity tariff and how much of the solar power is consumed on site. Under the RESCO (Renewable Energy Service Company) model, the developer invests in, owns, operates and maintains the plant on your roof, and you sign a long-term power purchase agreement (typically 15 to 25 years) to buy the solar electricity at a fixed tariff lower than your grid tariff, with no upfront investment. CAPEX maximises lifetime savings; RESCO preserves capital and transfers performance risk to the developer. Envotech Energy structures both, as well as BOOT and customised hybrid models, backed by financial modelling of investment, generation, savings and returns.

In West Bengal, grid-connected rooftop solar is regulated by the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) together with the central Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules. Most of Kolkata and Howrah city is supplied by CESC Limited, while the rest of the state, including much of Howrah district, is supplied by WBSEDCL. The usual process is: apply to your distribution licensee (CESC or WBSEDCL) with your consumer details and proposed solar capacity; the licensee checks technical feasibility against your sanctioned load and the local transformer capacity; the plant is installed with approved equipment and protection; it is inspected (HT installations also need electrical inspectorate clearance); and the licensee installs a bi-directional net meter and synchronises the plant with the grid. Eligibility limits, the choice between net metering, net billing or gross metering, and how surplus units are settled are set by WBERC and revised from time to time, so Envotech Energy checks the current rules for your connection category and handles the documentation with CESC or WBSEDCL as part of the project.