The Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission has recently granted permission to the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam (JBVNL) to obtain 100 MW of electricity from a floating solar power venture set to be established at the Getalsud dam in Ranchi. This move is aimed at fulfilling JBVNL's renewable purchase obligation (RPO). The commission has stipulated that JBVNL must secure power from this project at a maximum rate of Rs 3.50 ($0.042) per kWh or lower. Additionally, the commission has instructed the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to submit a petition for tariff determination once the project is commissioned.
JBVNL and SECI had previously jointly filed a petition seeking approval for a provisional power purchase agreement (PPA) to acquire 100 MW of electricity from the floating solar project. In terms of background, for the financial year 2020-21, the solar RPO target was set at 6.55%, but JBVNL could only achieve 32.44 MUs out of the intended 798.20 MUs. In the subsequent financial year 2021-2022, the solar RPO goal was raised to 10.5%, but JBVNL managed only 128.90 MUs against the target of 1,317.83 MUs. The commission had instructed JBVNL to strictly adhere to RPO requirements in the future.
JBVNL emphasized that the forthcoming 700 MW of solar power projects, for which they had entered into PPAs with SECI, would contribute significantly to meeting their RPO targets, starting from the FY 2022-23. Furthermore, JBVNL had already entered into a power sale agreement with SECI to procure 700 MW of solar power from various solar power developers, of which 315 MW has been in use since January 2022. SECI and JBVNL also entered into an agreement for this project, and a tripartite water lease agreement was executed between the Water Resources Department of the Government of Jharkhand, JBVNL, and SECI on November 9, 2021.
In its analysis, the commission noted that the provisional PPA was designed to assist JBVNL in meeting its RPO target as mandated by the Commission through the Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation and its Compliance Regulation of 2016. Consequently, the commission approved the procurement of 100 MW of electricity from the floating solar power project at a maximum rate of Rs 3.50 per kWh or lower. It's worth noting that in September of the previous year, JSERC had already granted JBVNL permission to acquire 700 MW of interstate transmission system-connected solar power from SECI to fulfill its RPO.
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