Surya Thejus Solar Scheme (ANERT)

What is the Surya Thejus solar scheme?

Surya Thejus is the household rooftop solar drive promoted by the Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), the Government of Kerala's nodal agency for renewable energy, established in 1986. The name combines the Sanskrit and Malayalam words for sun and radiance, and the programme's purpose is to put grid-connected solar plants on Kerala's household and institutional rooftops.

ANERT's role in Kerala's solar landscape is a promotional and facilitative one. It runs awareness programmes, empanels installers, publishes eligibility criteria for state schemes on anert.gov.in, and channels households towards the central PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, which is where the money comes from. The electricity connection, the technical feasibility check and the net meter remain with Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL), which also runs its own rooftop programme under the name Soura.

For a household the practical picture is straightforward. You install a grid-connected plant on your roof through an empanelled installer. KSEB approves the connection and fits a bidirectional net meter so your daytime generation is set off against your consumption. The central financial assistance is credited to your bank account after commissioning.

Central financial assistance for a domestic plant

The rate is Rs 30,000 per kW for the first two kilowatts and Rs 18,000 for the third kilowatt, and nothing beyond that. This is why the great majority of Kerala household installations are sized at 3 kW: it is the point at which the subsidy is fully used.

Kerala's own state-level assistance under successive rooftop phases has been described by installers as roughly 40 per cent for systems up to 3 kW and around 20 per cent up to 10 kW. These state-side percentages could not be verified on an ANERT or KSEB page at the time of writing, so a household should ask ANERT or its KSEB section office directly which state model, if any, is currently open before relying on a vendor's claim.

Who is eligible for Surya Thejus?

You can apply if:

• You are a KSEB consumer with the electricity connection in your own name.
• You own the building and its roof, and can show a property tax receipt or title deed.
• Your roof has enough shade-free area; roughly 8 to 10 square metres per kilowatt of plant.
• You have a bank account and Aadhaar for the subsidy credit.

Institutions such as schools, hospitals and places of worship are also part of ANERT's rooftop promotion, though the central financial assistance under PM Surya Ghar is structured for the residential sector, so the terms for an institutional plant should be confirmed with ANERT before any commitment.

You cannot apply, or will not qualify, if:

• The connection is in someone else's name and you have no written consent from the consumer. A tenant is not eligible on the owner's connection without it.
• You live in a flat and have no authorisation from the association over the common terrace.
• You have already installed the plant. Registration and feasibility approval must come first; a commissioned plant cannot be brought into the scheme afterwards.
• Your installer is not empanelled, or the modules and inverter do not meet the specified standards.
• The local distribution transformer has no spare capacity, in which case KSEB's feasibility study will hold the application until the network is reinforced.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Surya Thejus solar scheme

1. Check what is currently open. Visit anert.gov.in or call ANERT on the toll-free number 1800 425 1803 to confirm which rooftop scheme is accepting applications and on what terms.
2. Register on the PM Surya Ghar portal with your KSEB consumer number, mobile number and Aadhaar, since the central financial assistance is administered there.
3. Pick an empanelled installer from the list for Kerala and obtain a written quotation stating the capacity, the module and inverter make, the warranty, the gross cost, the expected assistance and your net payable.
4. Obtain KSEB technical feasibility approval, which confirms your sanctioned load and the capacity your local network can accept.
5. Install the plant only after feasibility approval. Installing earlier forfeits the assistance.
6. Apply for net metering. KSEB inspects the installation and fits a bidirectional meter, which is the step that formally commissions the plant.
7. Submit commissioning documents and bank details, after which the central assistance is credited to your account.

How to get help offline

1. Visit the ANERT district office or the ANERT headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram for guidance on empanelled installers and current schemes.
2. Visit your KSEB section office with the latest electricity bill to check the feasibility position for your locality before spending anything.
3. Ask for written quotations from at least two empanelled installers and compare the net payable after assistance, not the headline price.
4. Keep every receipt and the commissioning certificate, since these are what the subsidy claim rests on.

How much does a household actually save?

Savings come from net metering rather than from a cash payment. Every unit the plant generates during the day offsets a unit that would otherwise be billed, and because Kerala's domestic tariff is slab-based, the offset is applied against the household's highest slab first. A household that consistently sits in a higher slab therefore saves considerably more per unit generated than one at the bottom of the tariff.

Three factors change the answer more than the subsidy does:

• Daytime consumption. A home with a daytime load, a work-from-home household, an air conditioner used in the afternoon, a pump — captures more of its own generation.
• Shading. Coconut palms and neighbouring buildings are the commonest reason a Kerala rooftop array underperforms its rating.
• Monsoon months. Generation in June and July is materially lower than in the dry season, so annual figures rather than peak-day figures should be used when assessing a vendor's payback claim.

Why applications get delayed

• Mobile number and email not updated with KSEB against the consumer number.
• Feasibility approval pending because the local transformer is loaded.
• Roof ownership document mismatch, especially where the property is in a parent's name.
• Installer not empanelled, discovered only after work has started.
• Net meter queue at the section office after a large registration drive.
• Bank account name mismatch with the consumer name, which stops the DBT.

Key dates and capacity

Rooftop solar applications in Kerala remain open while the state's sanctioned capacity allocation lasts. That allocation is finite and is drawn down as plants are commissioned, so registering early is materially better than waiting. There is no published annual last date for Surya Thejus, but capacity-limited schemes close without notice once the allocation is exhausted, and a consumer who registers but delays installation can lose the place in the queue.

Help and grievance redressal

• ANERT, Thiruvananthapuram, phone 0471 2338077 and 0471 2334122, toll free 1800 425 1803, email info@anert.in, portal anert.gov.in.
• KSEB section office for feasibility, net metering and connection issues.
• KSEB customer care: 1912.
• PM Surya Ghar national portal for the status of the central assistance.

Subsidy is never paid in advance and never routed through a vendor's own account. Any installer who asks for an extra payment to "release" or "speed up" the subsidy should be reported to ANERT and to the KSEB section office.