Adani Green wins bids for 3 GW capacity in 6.4 GW AP solar tender
08 Feb 2021
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Adani Green Energy has won 5 bids for a combined 3 GW capacity in the tender for 6.4GW floated by Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corporation Limited (APGECL).
Results of the tender released on Thursday showed that Adani Green Energy Limited, with 5 bids for packets of 600 MW each, priced in the range of Rs2.49 to Rs2.58/kWh.
Torrent Power Limited, with a single winning bid for a 600 MW project, quoted the lowest price of Rs2.47/kWh. NTPC also won a 600 MW project at Rs2.48/kWh.
The final award of projects would be subject to the result of a suit filed in the state high court by Tata Power Renewable Energy.
Several renewable power companies desisted from bidding for the project as the state government got embroiled in disputes with multiple wind and solar developers over renegotiating their previous PPA rates. Most of the developers involved chose to give these tenders a miss, as did many foreign-owned, as well as foreign-funded developers.
That also explains why the lowest bids are nowhere close to the recent bids around Rs1.99/kWh, including from NTPC.
For the Andhra state government, getting participation and quality bids was a major prestige issue.
To ease land acquisition issues, the state government arranged to lease 50 per cent of the government lands at the rate Rs5 per acre, the remaining lands are either private or assigned lands. The government will pay for the lease lands at the rate of Rs25,000 per acre per year. Projects are to come up over 10 solar parks across the state.
The bid envisages a capacity Utilisation Factor of 18 per cent during the period of implementation of PPAs
Readers will recall that the state government has been putting pressure on developers to agree to a rate of Rs2.44-45 per unit for previous PPA’s. To that extent, the fact that the prices discovered now, almost 2-3 years after those PPA’s, are still higher simply proves a point, that the dispute may not have been well thought through. However, the state government will take comfort from the fact that these discovered rates are the lowest ever for projects in Andhra Pradesh.
5 companies filed 24 bids in total, with each bid for a minimum of 300 MW or multiples thereof. The Adani Group had filed for all of the 6,500 MW, followed by Shirdi Sai Group for 5,800 MW, NTPC for 1800 MW, Torrent Power for 300 MW and HES & SSICPL consortium for 600 MW.
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