BESS policy and portal to be launched soon, says Energy Resources Minister Nirmal Kumar

Tamil Nadu Minister for Energy Resources C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar said on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) that a battery energy storage system (BESS) policy, along with a portal, would be launched soon.

Inaugurating the Indian Solar Association’s special interactive meet on the Tamil Nadu Solar Rooftop Programme and an expo in Chennai, he said the Energy Resources Department had finalised the BESS policy after holding discussions for three months.  He said that nearly 20,000 applications had been received since the launch of the Tamil Nadu Rooftop Solar Subsidy Scheme announced by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. As many as 1,500 applications were cleared for subsidy. The scheme combines the Central and State government subsidy of ₹35,000 for 1 kilowatt (kW), ₹70,000 for 2 kW and ₹1,00,000 for 3 kW. 

Pointing out that the total rooftop solar plants installed in Tamil Nadu was only one lakh all these years, Mr. Nirmal Kumar said the subsidy scheme had set a target of one lakh rooftop solar plants by the end of March next year. 

P.N. Sridhar, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation Limited (TNGECL), said the State has a good mix of solar, wind, and hydro energy, and the distributed renewable energy was being promoted through the BESS policy. With around 400 megawatt (MW) of rooftop solar plants installed in the State, the subsidy scheme would further promote the growth of rooftop solar power generation, he added. 

P. Ashok Kumar, founder and former president of Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Developers Association (TNSEDA), wanted the State to extend the period of six months for installing non-domestic content requirement (DCR) solar panel against the Central government’s directive to start installing only DCR solar panels from December this year. 

A non-DCR solar panel is a solar module that is either fully imported from abroad or assembled in India with imported solar cells.

TNSEDA president P. Shivakumar and former Krishnagiri MP C. Narasimhan, spoke. The meeting was organised by Indian Solar Association in association with TNSEDA.