A.P. TO FLOAT INDIA’S LARGEST SOLAR TENDER

The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to float India’s largest solar tender of 10GW primarily to meet the farmers’ demand for electricity. Currently in A.P. 5.2 GW of planned solar and wind energy projects are kept in hold as these renewable energy contracts which were inked under the previous government is being critically examined by the current administration. The 10GW plan awaits tenders which will be issued by state-run Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corpn Ltd (APGECL). The bids will be called on land being identified and getting ready. This will entail an investment of Rs 35,000 crore. The previous tender issued by the previous
government which got cancelled drew lot of criticism from the centre and also was severely criticized by governments of France, Canada and Japan and other global investors like Goldman Sachs, Brookfield, Softbank and Canada Pension Plan investment board.
Several global investors like Renew Power, Greenko, Adani Power, PTC India Ltd, SB Energy, Myntrah, Hero Future Energies had invested in projects of A.P. The proposed tender is also coming at a time when the India’s solar power tariff has touched a record low of Rs 2.36 per
KWh at the last auction conducted by Solar Energy Corpn of India. The low tariffs has made fund starved electricity distribution companies (discoms) not willing to sign contracts for 16.8 GW of solar and wind energy capacity as they were awarded at a comparatively higher rate. In lieu of that RFP (request for proposal) will be floated shortly keeping in mind the low tariff
discovered.