Tangedco to buy 500 MW solar power at Rs 2.78/unit

The Tangedco’s petition came up for the hearing before the commission on Tuesday, seeking approval for signing power sale agreement on long-term basis to meeting the utility’s renewable purchase obligation.

Tamil Nadu has a total renewable power capacity of 14,144.35 MW, of which solar power constitutes 3,972 MW. As per the Centre’s target of achieving 1.75 lakh MW of renewable capacity by 2022, including solar capacity of one lakh MW, the targeted solar capacity for Tamil Nadu is 8,971 MW by 2022.

Solar power, which was promoted initially through the preferential tariff mode, has been shifted from the feed-in tariff regime to tariff-based competitive bidding and reverse auctions. The price per unit of solar power, which was around Rs 4 fell to Rs 2.97 per unit in February 2017 in the bidding conducted for the REWA Solar power plant in Madhya Pradesh. It fell further to Rs 2.44 per unit in the auction held for the Bhadla Solar park in Rajasthan in May 2017.

The SECI has been conducting competitive biddings for solar power, and the contract for many projects have been awarded through reverse auctions.

Many of the states have commenced procurement of solar power through State-conducted biddings apart from purchase of solar power through the biddings conducted by SECI. Tangedco’s move to procure power from the SECI came after its attempt to procure wind and solar power through reverse bidding failed. The State utility decided to procure power through SECI to meet its RPO.