Common-area electricity — lifts, water pumps, lighting, security systems, the clubhouse — runs continuously, accumulates monthly, and grows year after year as DISCOM tariffs rise. For a 200-flat society, this can represent ₹15,000–30,000 per flat per year, paid quietly through maintenance. We reduce this dramatically through offsite solar that needs no roof space, no structural changes, and no maintenance burden on your committee.
Designed specifically for residential societies of 200+ flats. Executed through legally established Group Captive structures under the Electricity Act 2003. A Sharada Industries offering, operating since 1996.
Lifts that idle and start through the night. Water pumps that cycle on demand. Corridor and stairwell lighting. STP blowers. Boundary-wall security cameras and floodlights. The clubhouse air-conditioning during evening bookings. Together they run continuously, twelve months a year.
Common-area connections in most states are categorised as commercial or HT services — not domestic — and attract tariffs with cross-subsidy surcharges layered on top. Residents pay this without seeing it, month after month.
DISCOM tariffs revise upward almost annually. Your society's electricity bill follows — so does the maintenance charge, in real terms. The corpus quietly subsidises a cost the committee has no contractual lever over.
A worked example using assumptions a committee can verify against its own last twelve months of DISCOM bills. The variables are tariff slab, total connected load, and consumption profile — the structure of the saving doesn't change.
Three society profiles
Profile A · Basic
Lifts, pumps, lighting. No STP, no clubhouse AC.
Typical monthly common-area bill: ₹2.5 L. CloudSolar offset target: ~30%. Per-flat saving: ≈ ₹4,500 / year.
Profile B · Mid-size — modelled below
Lifts, pumps, lighting, STP, security, modest clubhouse.
Typical monthly common-area bill: ₹3.2 L. CloudSolar offset target: ~40%. Per-flat saving: ≈ ₹7,700 / year.
Profile C · Premium / High-amenity
Multiple towers, large STP, clubhouse with AC, swimming pool, EV charging stack.
Typical monthly common-area bill: ₹6 L+. CloudSolar offset target: ~45%. Per-flat saving: ≈ ₹15,000+ / year.
* Cumulative saving compounds with the DISCOM tariff escalation curve — assumed at 4–5% annually based on the last decade's revisions. The CloudSolar rate is contracted; the residual DISCOM units escalate. Premium-amenity societies (Profile C) routinely model to ₹15,000+ per flat per yearat year one. None of the numbers above are a quote — they're an arithmetic frame against which our team will model your society's actual last-twelve-months bill data.
Adapted for residential societies. The legal and operational mechanics differ from an industrial Group Captive in the details — the basic shape does not.
Society resolves.
The committee places a Group Captive resolution before the general body. A simple agenda item with the full structure shared in advance. Threshold: 75% approval among voting members.
Society subscribes.
Capacity is sized to your common-area consumption — typically 200–500 kW for a 200-flat society. The society takes 26% equity in the SPV that owns the farm. CloudSolar funds and builds the remaining 74%.
Farm generates.
Power flows into the grid from the solar farm — typically 80–150 km from the society. The DISCOM scheduling and metering infrastructure handles allocation. Generation is verified live; the dashboard is auditable by any committee member at any time.
Society's bill drops.
The solar units appear as a credit on the society's existing DISCOM common-area bill. Maintenance charges reflect the reduction directly. No new vendor relationship for residents; the relationship is between the committee, the SPV, and the DISCOM.
Group Captive is not a marketing wrapper. It is a defined consumer category under Indian electricity law, originally designed for industrial clusters, now equally available to residential societies operating as a single common-area consumer. Three things to understand:
Your society becomes a captive consumer of its own SPV.
Under Section 9, Electricity Act 2003 read with Rule 3, Electricity Rules 2005, a consumer that holds at least 26% equity in a generating company qualifies as a captive user and is exempt from Cross-Subsidy Surcharge and Additional Surcharge on the power consumed proportional to that holding.
For a society, this means the registered RWA (or its appointed nominee) holds a 26%+ stake in the SPV — typically a private limited company — that owns the solar farm. The remaining 74% is held by CloudSolar / the project developer.
A general body resolution at 75% approval.
Per Model Bye-Law 142 of cooperative-society and RWA frameworks across most states, a long-term financial commitment by the society requires a special resolution at three-fourths majority of voting members present at a duly convened general body meeting.
One AGM item. One vote. One signature on the SPV subscription documents by the authorised office-bearer thereafter. We provide the resolution draft, the explanatory note, and a slide deck the committee can present.
Nothing operational changes for the committee.
No panels on your buildings. No O&M contract for the society to manage. No structural assessment. No capex from the corpus — society's 26% equity is typically nominal, structured through a thin-equity SPV designed for this purpose, so the committee is not deploying maintenance funds.
The society's day-to-day relationship is unchanged: it pays a single common-area bill, which now shows a credit against grid units. Generation, performance, system health, and savings are visible live on the dashboard — exportable for the auditor and for AGM presentation.
If your committee has a question not covered here, our team will respond within one business day.
Three-fourths of members present and voting at a duly convened general body meeting, subject to quorum requirements specified in your society's bye-laws and the relevant state cooperative-society act. The 21-day AGM notice must specifically include the Group Captive resolution as an agenda item, with the explanatory note and SPV term sheet attached. We provide a model resolution and the explanatory note in the format your state's registrar accepts.
Nothing changes at the flat level. The equity participation in the SPV is held by the RWA / society as a legal entity — not by individual flat owners. When a flat is sold, the buyer inherits the benefit of lower maintenance charges automatically, the same way they inherit access to the lift or the clubhouse. No assignment paperwork, no separate transfer.
The 26% equity participation is structured through a thin-equity SPV — typically with a nominal authorised capital — designed precisely so the society's contribution is symbolic, not material. The 25-year power purchase from the SPV is what carries the economic substance; the equity is what unlocks the legal status. We share the full term sheet and the SPV's audited cap table before the resolution goes to the AGM, so the committee can see every number.
Capacity can be scaled upward through a capacity-augmentation amendment, requiring a fresh general body resolution at the same 75% threshold. The original SPV structure does not need to be unwound; an additional tranche is allocated. We document this provision in the original power purchase agreement so future committees have a clean path. The opposite case — a decline in load — is rarer in residential societies, and is handled through a reallocation clause we negotiate upfront.
Three documents arrive monthly: a generation log from the farm (kWh produced, allocated to your society, signed off by the SPV), a credit advice from the DISCOM showing units credited to your common-area meter, and a CloudSolar invoice for the solar units at the contracted rate. All three are exportable in CSV / PDF from your committee's dashboard login. Your CA reconciles three numbers against one another — a check the platform makes trivial.
Solar electricity supply to a captive consumer attracts GST at the prevailing rate (currently 0% on electricity itself; certain associated services may attract GST at applicable rates). The society's existing GST position on maintenance charges is unchanged. There is no incremental tax exposure created by the structure — the saving flows through cleanly. We work with your society's auditor before signature to confirm the entries against your specific state's cooperative-society accounting practice.
Exit terms are defined upfront and disclosed before the AGM resolution. Standard structure: the society's 26% equity in the SPV is bought back by the project developer at a pre-agreed formula tied to the SPV's audited net asset value. The power purchase relationship terminates on a notice period. There is no scenario where a future committee discovers a surprise liability — every termination scenario is priced and documented in the original PPA.
A presentation deck tailored to your society's actual numbers, the model resolution drafted to your state's registrar conventions, the explanatory note to accompany the 21-day AGM notice, the full SPV term sheet, the 25-year cash-flow projection for the committee's records, and a one-page summary suitable for forwarding on WhatsApp to residents. Our team will also attend the AGM — in person where geography permits, by video link otherwise — to answer questions in front of the body.
A few details about your society and your common-area bill. Within one business day, our team will return a worked savings model — using your actual numbers — and the model resolution suitable for your next AGM.
What you'll get back
A society-specific savings projection — Profile A, B or C calibrated against your bill.
The model AGM resolutiondrafted to your state's registrar conventions.
A one-page summaryforward-able to your WhatsApp owners' group.
No site visit required at this stage.The first conversation is over a video call with the office-bearer of your choosing, on the committee's timetable.