Pune Municipal Corp to form SPV for Erecting Solar Plant

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has given a nod to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to generate solar power and purchase it from the company that sets up the plant for next twenty years at a fixed rate.

PMC along with the Centre’s Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) plan to generate the solar power and utilise it. The plant is planned to come up in Marathwada or Vidharba region on government land.

PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasne said, “It is decided that SPV would invest twenty percentage and 80 percentage would be raised through loan for erecting solar plant. In the twenty percentage share, PMC would bear 26 percentage and SPV would invest 74 percentage share. It is expected that the total solar project cost would be ₹250 crore. PMC would need to give Rs12.48 crore as investment. Even it is mandatory to PMC that it would need to purchase at least 51 percentage energy generated through the plant.”

Rasne said, “As per existing rate, PMC is purchasing energy from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited at the rate of Rs7.23 per unit. It is expected that Pune Municipal Corporation would buy solar energy at Rs3.40 per unit from SPV and the rates would be stable for next 20 years. PMC is expecting to get energy for at least Rs1 cheaper than existing MSEDCL rates.”

Electric department head Srinivas Kandul said, “The standing committee had given nod for forming SPV. Both PMC and EESL are government companies which are forming new SPV. The proposal will be placed before PMC general body for approval. Once the administrative approval is completed, the SPV would identify the government land either in Marathwada or Vidharba for erecting the plant.”

In June this year, Tata Motors and Tata Power jointly inaugurated India’s largest grid-synchronized, behind-the-meter solar carport at the Tata Motors car plant in Chikhali, Pune. The 6.2 MWp solar carport was aimed at generating 86.4 lakh kWh of electricity per year and estimated to reduce 7,000 tons of carbon emissions annually and 1.6 lakh tons over its lifecycle.