Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL), a state run apex electricity company in Gujarat, has entered into power purchase agreements (PPAs) with 28 companies for procuring 420 Mw of solar power. This move comes after the state government had allotted over 700 MW of solar power capacities to 34 national and international developers last year.
The company had signed PPAs to the tune 275 Mw in the beginning of last month with 17 companies such as Adani group, PLG, Lanco, Moserbaer, Sunkon, Astonfield, Cargo, Azure and Zeba Solar to name a few. Adani Group company and PLG have entered into an agreement for 40 Mw each, while Moserbaer has signed PPA for 45 Mw.
By the end of May, eleven more companies did PPAs with GUVNL for 155 Mw. The companies also include AES Solar (15 Mw), Millennium Synergy (10 Mw) and Vaa Solar (10 Mw). "All the agreements are for the period of 25 years and these projects would come up between September 2010 to December 2011," said government sources. In order to promote solar power production in the state, last year Gujarat government had alloted solar power generation capacity of 716 Mw to as many as 34 national and international companies, which also include Lanco Solar Pvt. Ltd, Astonfield Solar Mi GmbH, Germany, Adani Power Ltd., Welspun Urja Ltd., NTPC, New Delhi, Torrent Power Ltd. and Abengoa Ltd. of Spain.
With a view to attracting project developers to set up solar power projects in the state, Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC), the state power regulator, had come out with a solar power procurement tariff in January this year. The commission fixed a tariff of Rs 15 per unit for power to be purchased from solar photovoltaic generators, while it has pegged a tariff of Rs 11 per unit for solar thermal power. These tariffs are for initial 12 years and will be applicable to new solar power projects to be commissioned in the state during next two years. After 12 years, the generators will have to sell power generated from solar photovoltaic and thermal solar projects at Rs 5 and Rs 4 per unit respectively.
It may be mentioned here that many project developers have planned to establish big size power projects in Gujarat. Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a programme of US based William J Clinton Foundation, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gujarat government for setting up five solar parks in Gujarat with a cumulative power generation capacity of 3000 Mw which can be further scaled up to 5,000 MW. Adani Power and NTPC plans to set up solar power project of 100 Mw each in Gujarat, while Azure Power will put up 15 Mw solar photovoltaic power plant.