The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has approved the petition to procure 250 MW of solar power from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The Haryana Power Purchase Center (HPPC) had submitted the plea for procuring 250 MW of solar power through the 1,200 MW (ISTS Tranche IV) tender to fulfill its RPO targets. The contract will be valid for 25 years.

HPPC is a joint forum created by the state’s distribution companies to undertake various activities including the signing of agreements on behalf of Haryana DISCOMs.

The tariff set for the procurement was ₹2.54 (~$0.035)/kWh fixed for 25 years.

The state has  solar RPO target of 1% of the total consumption for the year 2016-17, 2.5% for the year 2017-18, 4% for 2018-19, 5.5% for 2019-20, 7% for 2020-21, and 8% for the year 2021-22.

The existing contracted capacity of 125.8 MW is expected to generate 214 million units every year.

The HPPC had submitted that it has 100 MW of contracted capacity with SECI at a tariff rate of ₹2.57 (~$0.036)/kWh and another 400 MW at ₹2.51 (~$0.034)/kWh. Further, it has a contracted capacity of 330 MW with SECI for wind and solar projects at the rate of ₹2.76 (~$0.038)/kWh.

Apart from these, HPPC also has a contracted capacity of 93 MW with the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) and 135 MW under the KUSUM program.

Nearly 2,100 MW of solar power on a long-term basis is required to meet the solar RPO target of 8% by the financial year 2021-22. However, with the current figures, only 1,584 MW of solar power will be available by the end of 2021-22.

Considering this, HPPC said that it intends to purchase 250 MW of solar power from SECI at the rate of ₹2.54 (~$0.035)/kWh.

The Commission noted that the shortfall in fulfillment of RPO targets for FY 2018-19, is about 1,202 million units and considering the backlog in the solar RPO, the total shortfall stands at 1850.44 MUs.

After reviewing the status of the RPO shortfall, the Commission approved the request for the procurement of 250 MW of solar power through SECI. The Commission also asked HPPC to submit a copy of the power sale agreement within seven days from the date of its signing.

Last year, SECI entered a power sale agreement for the trade of power from 400 MW of solar projects with HPPC at a tariff of ₹2.44 (~$0.035)/kWh.

In 2019, SECI and Uttar Pradesh also signed the power sale agreements for 750 MW of solar power at a tariff rate of ₹2.55 (~$0.036)/kWh for 25 years.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Haryana has a total of 82.8 MW of solar projects in operation and 425 MW of projects in the pipeline.