SJVN Bags 15 MW floating solar project in Himachal

Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, SJVN has announced the winning of a 15 MW Grid Connected Floating Solar PV Power Project at Nangal pond, near village Neilla, District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh. SJVN has bagged the full quoted capacity of 15 MW @ INR 3.26 /Unit on Build Own and Operate basis through e-Reverse Auction held by Solar Energy Corporation of India. For SECI, final closure comes after repeated deadline extensions for this much awaited project. In fact, the 15 (or 16) extensions given to this project might be some sort of a record actually.

Speaking on the occassion Sharma said “ It is a proud moment for SJVN that it has bagged its first Floating Solar Project in Himachal Pradesh. The company is focusing on developing Renewable Energy to emerge as major contributor in realizing Government of India’s vision to generate 500 GW Energy by 2030 from Non-Fossil Sources.”

He added that the cost of developing this Floating Solar Project shall be approximately Rs 100 crores. The project is expected to generate 32.85 MU in first year and the cumulative energy generation over a period of 25 years will be approximately 756 MU. The Power Purchase Agreement between SJVN & Bhakra Beas Management Board will be signed shortly.

With this win, Nand Lal Sharma stated that SJVN now has 11 Solar Power Projects of 2965 MW capacity under different stages of development with a total portfolio of more than 16800 MW. The company has set itself an aggressive capacity addition target of  5000 MW by 2023, 25000 MW by 2030 & 50000 MW installed capacity by 2040.

Winning a solar project in Himachal will be welcome for SJVN, itself a joint venture between the government of India and Himachal Pradesh.  Notably, this bid might even be seen as a ‘rescue’ of sorts for this particular tender, which has seen over 15 deadlines since it was first floated by SECI in July 2020, with a ceiling tariff of Rs 3.41. It appears technical issues dogged many of the earlier bids, and kept bidders way due to the ceiling tariff too.

With SJVN finally comfortable at a price and with its own competency to execute, one hopes this long awaited project will finally see the light of day in 2023.  The original commissioning date was set at 18 months after signing of the PPA.