Tuesday, October 28, 2014: A grant of Rs 5,000 million has been approved by the central government to set up 2,500MW solar parks in Andhra Pradesh. The state government has planned to develop 500MW grid connected solar PV projects and bids for 1,296MW have already been placed by around 50 solar developers.
The approval has been informed to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu by Ajay Jain, energy secretary, AP Transco CMD and AP Genco MD K Vijayanand. AP Transco opened the auctioning process and bidders have offered tariff rates ranging from Rs 5.25 to Rs 8.08 per unit for first one year, with 3 per cent hike every year till ten years. After the 11th year there will be no increase in the tariff rates. If the tariff is set to Rs 5.99 per unit, then the bidders offer capacity up to 619MW against the bid capacity of 500MW.
The lowest tariff rate of Rs 5.25 per unit for capacity of 40 MW in Ananthapur district has been offered by First Solar Power India Pvt Ltd. This district is in the top priority for all the bidders as the bid in this district has been set at 580MW, followed by Chittoor (273 MW) and Kurnool (272 MW). Tariff rates have been offered for coastal Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam, at Rs 5.94 and Rs.5.99 per unit, respectively. Apart from First Solar, other prominent bidders include Welspun Renewables Energy Pvt Ltd and Acme Clean Tech Solutions Ltd. A teleconference was conducted to inform the CM about the latest developments that the Union government has approved grant of Rs 2 million per MW. The total amount is estimated at Rs 5,000 million to develop 2,500MW solar park in the state, which is a huge step towards making the state a solar hub. The government plans to set up 9,150 MW capacity through renewable energy sources like solar and wind, by 2018-19.
