Electrical Monitor
 

Letters of intent soon for seven CSP projects

EM NEWS BUREAUThursday, December 09, 2010, 17:17 Hrs  [IST]

NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, the nodal agency under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, is expected to issue letters of intent to seven private developers for building solar power capacity aggregating 497 mw. While the intent letters will be issued by end of December, the developers are expected to sign the power purchase agreements by February 2011. The projects, with aggregate investment of Rs.jpg7,000 crore, will have to be commissioned within two years of signing the PPA.

The seven developers, all of whom will develop plants using the concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, are Reliance Power, Lanco, KVK Energy, Megha Engineering & Infrastructures, Godavari Power, Corporate Ispat and Arum Renewables. Out of the total envisaged capacity, 429 mw is scheduled to come up in Rajasthan and 50 mw in Andhra Pradesh.

Feed-in tariffs:
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has determined feed-in tariff for CSP plants at Rs.jpg15.31 per kwh, compared with Rs.jpg17.91 per kwh for solar photovoltaic power plants. The discount offered by a potential bidder to the CERC tariff is vital for evaluation of bids for allocation of projects under JNNSM. Lanco has offered the highest discount of Rs.jpg4.82 per kwh, followed by KVK Energy at Rs.jpg4.11 per kwh (see table). It is reliably learnt that 64 companies had participated in the bidding process, and based on the discounts offered and other eligibility criteria, NVVN selected the aforementioned seven.

JNNSM envisages 20,000 mw grid-connected solar power generation capacity by 2022. The programme is to be implemented in three phases. The first phase envisages 1,000 mw, equally distributed in CSP and solar PV, by 2013.

SOLAR CSP DEVELOPERS
Developer
Capacity
Discount
 
(MW)
(Rs./kwh)
Lanco
100
4.82
KVK Energy
100
4.11
Megha Engg & Infra
50
4.00
Reliance Power
100
3.34
Aurum Renewables
29
3.12
Godavari Power
50
3.11
Corporate Ispat
50
3.07
Total
479

 
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