Tata Power empowers Asian Paints with India’s first hybrid rooftop solar system

Asian Paints operates 23 paint manufacturing facilities across 17 countries. However, in Chennai, despite being connected to the grid, the plant often experienced scheduled and unscheduled power outages, resulting in heavy dependence on diesel generators (DGs). This instability forced the facility to rely heavily on diesel generators (DGs) to maintain uninterrupted operations. The consequences of this were significant:

1. Frequent grid outages
Chennai's power infrastructure, while generally reliable, was prone to both scheduled load shedding and unscheduled outages. These interruptions affected production processes, requiring instant fallback on diesel generators to prevent downtime. Over time, these disruptions led to:

 - Production inefficiencies

 - Higher maintenance needs for DG equipment

 - A stressed operations team constantly managing power shifts

2. High diesel dependency
To maintain continuity during power cuts, Asian Paints had to rely on four diesel generators, which came with significant drawbacks:

 - Rising diesel costs: Fuel prices fluctuated frequently, adding volatility to operational expenses

 - Operational inefficiency: DGs are inherently less efficient than grid or renewable sources, especially when run under partial loads or without synchronization

 - Air and noise pollution: Continuous DG usage added to the plant’s carbon and environmental footprint, clashing with corporate sustainability goals

3. Lack of integrated energy management
At the time, the facility lacked a unified control system to balance inputs from grid, DGs, and any renewable source. This meant:

 - No way to optimize energy source utilization

 - No mechanism to reduce diesel usage even when solar energy was available

 - Difficulty in tracking energy usage for targeted efficiency improvements

4. Barriers to renewable adoption
While Asian Paints was keen to integrate solar energy, the technical limitations of blending solar power with existing DG infrastructure posed a challenge.

 - Most solar systems at the time were not designed to synchronize with DGs, which led to underutilization of installed solar capacity during outages

 - Risk of reverse power flow damaging the system when power wasn't correctly balanced

Asian Paints sought a solar solution that could ensure reliable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly energy, even during outages.

Enter Tata Power Solar, India’s leading solar solutions provider. With a deep understanding of industrial energy challenges and cutting-edge technology, they proposed a customized solar rooftop system capable of integrating solar power not just with the grid, but also with the site's four DG sets.

The customized solar rooftop system installed by Tata Power Solar at the Chennai facility features an 800 kW rooftop array composed of 300 Wp DCR modules and is equipped with SMA inverters featuring advanced fuel saver controller technology. Commissioned in October 2014, this system produces an estimated 1.28 million units of clean energy annually.

This marked a pioneering moment in India's solar industry.

Tata Power Solar didn’t just supply solar panels, they architected a high-performance, future-ready solution tailored to Asian Paints’ needs.

1. Innovative hybrid integration: Tata Power Solar deployed SMA’s fuel saver controller technology, synchronizing solar power with multiple DG sets for the first time in India. India’s First DG Synchronized solar rooftop system created a milestone in India’s green energy movement.

2. Intelligent energy control: The system could dynamically manage power flow between the solar plant, grid, and DGs, maximizing diesel savings and ensuring continuous operations

3. Engineering excellence: The 800 kW solar plant was installed across multiple 30-meter-high buildings with multiple evacuation points, all without interrupting plant operations

For Tata Power Solar, this project represented a pioneering success as it delivered India’s first DG-synchronized rooftop solar system, showcasing its capability to innovate in complex industrial power environments. The collaboration strengthened Tata Power Solar’s relationship with Asian Paints, cementing its role as a trusted, long-term sustainability partner. Moreover, this benchmark project set a new standard for industrial solar solutions across India, demonstrating how advanced solar integration can overcome power challenges and drive sustainable growth.

1. Energy cost savings: Realized annual savings of ₹78 lakhs in energy expenditure

2. Diesel optimization: Reduced diesel consumption significantly through intelligent DG-solar synchronization.

3. Sustainability boost: Achieved a 640 metric tonnes reduction in carbon emissions annually.

4. Scalable model: Successfully validated a solar-DG hybrid model for replication across other manufacturing sites.

This groundbreaking project not only delivered substantial financial and environmental benefits but also established a replicable framework for integrating solar power with existing diesel generator systems in industrial settings. By pioneering India’s first DG-synchronized rooftop solar system, Asian Paints and Tata Power Solar have set a new benchmark for sustainable energy management in manufacturing.

Below are some critical highlights that illustrate the innovation, operational excellence, and future-readiness of this landmark initiative.