CERC Adopts tariff For SECI’s 1200 MW Wind Solar Hybrid Projects

In an order dated February 18, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has adopted the proposed tariffs for SECI’s  1200 MW Hybrid projects comprising wind and solar energy under Tranche VIII. SECI had issued the letter of awards to the winning bidders on June 20, 2024.  The projects will now await the signing of formal PPAs, possible only after SECI finds buyers for the same power and signs back to back Power Sales Agreements (PSAs) with them.

The Winning Bidders

S.No	Bidder Name	Tariff(INR/kWh)	Allotted Capacity
1	Juniper Green Energy Private Limuted	3.43	150
2	Asurari Renewables India Project Private Limited	3.45	300
3	Ampin Energy Utility Private Limited	3.45	150
4	Adyant Enersol Provate Limited	3.45	60
5	JSW Neo Energy Limited	3.45	300
6	Avaada Energy Private Limited	3.46	240
			1200 MW

Interestingly, this project is one of the earliest ones to fall under the new rules of creating a central pool of renewable energy to be sold at a uniform renewable energy tariff or URET. The Ministry of Power, on 25.10.2023, approved the procedure for implementation of the URET through Grid India, as the implementing agency (IA) for standardizing the tariff across various categories of central pool such as solar, solar-wind hybrid, at which the Intermediary Procurer (IP) will sell power generated from the renewable sources from such central pool to all the end Procurers.
MoP vide Office Memorandum dated 14.2.2024, has notified the start date of the Solar Power Central Pool and Solar-Wind Hybrid Central Pool as 15.2.2024 for all solar and solar-wind hybrid projects bid for after the aforesaid start date. The principle of operation of a pool shall be based on a first in, first out (FIFO) approach, i.e., solar and solar-wind hybrid projects whose Letter of Award has been placed first would be placed in their respective pools first and also sold first by the Intermediary Procurer. Also, the Ministry of Power designated the following
Renewable Energy Implementing Agencies (REIAs) as Intermediary Procurers for the URET procedure – Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, NTPC Limited, NHPC Limited, and SJVN Limited.

In April 2024, the procedure for implementation of the Uniform RE Tariff (URET) was further revised by GRID-INDIA. Some notable features of the procedure for implementation of the URET include:

i) The Central Pool shall be a pool of category-specific power from Inter State Transmission System connected with the renewable energy sources being procured by the designated Intermediary Procurers under Section 63 of the Act and as per provisions of the bidding guidelines notified by the Central Government, from time to time for supply to the end procurers of more than one State so that such power from renewable energy sources can be supplied to all end procurers from the concerned pool at uniform tariff under these procedures.

Moreover, The Uniform Renewable Energy Tariff for the Central Pool (URET) will be applicable only to power procured by the End Procurer and will not in any manner have any implication on the renewable energy tariff discovered under the respective tariff based competitive bidding process and payable to the renewable energy generators by the Intermediary Procurer as per the PPA.

The Implementing Agency (i.e., Grid India) will compute the Uniform Renewable Energy Tariff for selling electricity to the end procurer by
Intermediary Procurer on a monthly basis, as per the methodology specified in the procedure.

The contractual obligations between the generators and Intermediary Procurer, and Intermediary Procurer and end-procurer shall be governed by the respective bidding documents, including the PPAs and PSAs, and will have no bearing on URET.

The success of SECI in justifying its margin of 7 paise for this endeavour should be a good case study on the future approach towards the significant amount of unsold tenders.