Scheme for Development of 14 MW Solar Plant with Linked Storage in Ladakh

The lands for setting up of solar projects with battery storage will be facilitated by LREDA and KREDA.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the order of the President of India has launched a new scheme for setting up Solar PV Projects with aggregate battery storage capacity in Leh & Kargil.

The scope of work under the program guided by the Prime Minister Development Package (PMDP)-2015 for Jammu & Kashmir, through Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will include the setting up of 14 MW Solar PV Project with aggregate battery storage capacity of 42 MWh (capacity of 7 MW solar projects with battery storage of 21 MWh each in Leh & Kargil at different locations.

The salient features of the Scheme are as under:

The lands for setting up of solar projects with battery storage will be facilitated by Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency (LREDA) and Kargil Renewable Energy Development Agency (KREDA) in their respective regions.

The scheme would be implemented by the SECI which will also act as a Project Management Consultant (PMC) for the entire project, including finalisation the of DPR, selection of solar project developer, project management till project testing, commissioning and execution of the project by the project developer.

SECI will be responsible for fund management i.e. release of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) and will also monitor the performances post commissioning of the projects.

The project shall be implemented in Developer Mode with a fixed tariff of Rs 2 per unit with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support.

Maximum Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support of Rs.182.00 crores will be provided to Solar Project Developers for setting up the project.

The project will be selected through a process of open competitive reverse bidding on VGF to make available generated solar power at a pre-fixed tariff of Rs 2.0 per unit. The upper limit of VGF is Rs 13.00 Crore for 1 MW solar PV project with battery storage of 3 MWh.

The Ministry has put a timeline between 2019-20 and 2020-21 for the completion of the project.