SECI Refuses to Lower Tariffs for Andhra Solar Projects

SECI has refused to lower tariffs for 400 MW electricity supplied from a solar park at Galiveedu Mandal in district Kadapa to APSPDCL

State-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has refused to lower tariffs for 400 MW electricity supplied from a solar park at Galiveedu Mandal in district Kadapa to Andhra Pradesh South Power Distribution Company Ltd (APSPDCL).

SECI has also refused to attend a tariff negotiation meeting called by the discom on Monday (July 22), as per a letter shot off by the corporation to the APSPDCL earlier this month.

Earlier, the states’ PPA mess got more curious. After some clumsy damage to the prospects of existing and future solar projects with the unilateral decision to relook PPA’s, the state government’s latest missive to SECI and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) ups the stakes further. The state Discom had written to the central agency and the power PSU respectively to reduce the tariffs on almost 1650 MW of projects allotted in 2016 retrospectively, to a level of Rs 2.44, the lowest tariff discovered in subsequent auctions.

The discom had asked SECI to reduce the tariff for the 400MW supply to Rs 2.44 per unit from Rs 4.5 fixed earlier. In its letter, SECI stated that the tariff of Rs 4.5 was fixed after competitive bidding as per provisions of the Electricity Act. It said the tariff of Rs 2.44 per unit was arrived at in a separate auction for a solar project in different circumstances.

SECI explained that the tariff cannot be negotiated as the power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed. APSPDCL had claimed that no tariff-based competitive bidding was held and the tariff fixed was detrimental to the public interest.

Recently, following the new government’s decision to renegotiate PPAs from the TDP regime, previous Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu attacked the Jaganmohan Reddy government stating that his government acted in accordance with all the guidelines and that there were no irregularities as suggested by the new government.

“We had acted in accordance with the central government guidelines. There were no irregularities but Jagan’s government misinterpreted the facts to blame TDP,” Naidu said.