The Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India, has amended the competitive bidding guidelines for the procurement of power from grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects.

Amendments

• The MoP has increased the land acquisition period from seven months to 12 months.
• The ministry has also increased the time-period for attaining financial closure from seven months to 12 months from the date of execution of the power purchase agreement (PPA).
• Project commissioning timeframe has been increased from 13 months to 21 months from the date of PPA execution.
• The timeframe of commissioning of projects of capacity 250 MW and above outside a solar park has been increased from 15 months to 24 months, from the date of PPA execution.

The amended guidelines are expected to help the sector grow as developers will now have ample time to execute quality projects.

When contacted, an MNRE official told Mercom, “Stakeholders wanted these changes and had requested the Ministry, as the previous timeframe was not sufficient and suitable for them.”

“These extensions will ensure timely project execution and less disputes between the developer and procurer due to time constraints or other problems that delay project commissioning,” added the official.

Recently, the MNRE also amended the guidelines for the selection of solar power park developers (SPPDs) through tariff-based competitive bidding process. The MNRE amended the guidelines to bring more transparency in the selection of SPPDs for the development of solar parks.