RUMSL Shajapur Auction- NTPC, Solar Arise Emerge Winners

The 450 MW RUMSL (Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited) solar auction finally culminated with NTPC Renewables (NTPC) and Talettutayi Solar Projects Nine (SolarArise) emerging winners. The solar projects, to be located in the Shajapur Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh had received a strong  bidder response earlier, thanks mainly to the strong reputation of RUMSL, and the convenient availability of land for the projects. Therefore, At Rs 2.33/kWh, NTPC’s winning bid was also not as big a surprise perhaps. A joint venture between the Solar Energy Corporation of India and Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, RUMSL has been a key success story from Madhya Pradesh actually. What will please the firm is that the winning bids are almost 5% lower than the bids at the Agar Solar park auction conducted by it where the results were announced last week.

While it won a capacity of 220 MW quoting Rs 2.33/kWh, it also took third place in the bids and 105 MW, with a quote of Rs 2.35. Second place, and the rights to develop solar capacity of 125 MW went to Talettutayi Solar Projects Nine (SolarArise) which quoted Rs 2.34/kWh. For the Gurugram based Solar Arise, this will be their first major project in Madhya Pradesh. The firm counts the Kotak Mahindra Group, European Investment Bank (EIB) and Thomas Lloyd, a global investment and advisory firm, among its backers.

With guaranteed offtake from the Indian Railways among others, the RUMSL projects have offered developers a level of assurance that few other state projects have, helping them repeatedly get a strong response and very competitive prices when compared with projects elsewhere. One key reason why Madhya Pradesh has emerged as a surprise success story in the past 3 years for solar.

The current tender is part of a total 500 MW of capacity being developed by RUMSL, financed entirely by the World Bank. the projects are at Agar, Neemuch and Shajapur.

We recently reported on Avaada Energy and O2 Power winning the 550 MW auction for projects at  the Agar Solar Park.

With the Delhi metro as one of its clients, the RUMSL solar parks are playing a key role in reducing carbon emissions for large infra projects, and establish a very good template for other states that are lagging to lean from.