The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has issued an order approving the deviations to the terms of competitive bidding, the conditions of request for proposal (RfP) and the draft power purchase agreement (PPA) for 300 MW of solar projects by the Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPPC).

In its petition, the HPPC stated that the procurement of solar power through competitive bidding has been proposed to relieve the backlog of renewable purchase obligations (RPO) compliance. HPPC had submitted a revised RfP along with a draft PPA, prepared in line with the guidelines for the tariff-based competitive bidding process.

HPPC had proposed the inclusion of a line of credit for a term of 12 months, renewed annually. The renewal amount will be equal to the estimated average monthly billing for the first contract year. For subsequent years, the amount will be equal to the average of the monthly billing of the previous contract year.

HPPC had suggested 210 days for the financial closure of the project after entering into a PPA with the solar project developers.

HPPC’s proposal had mandated that the procurement be composed of two categories. Under Category I, 240 MW of cumulative capacity will be procured, with project minimum capacity of 3 MW and a project maximum capacity of 240 MW. Under Category II, 60 MW of cumulative capacity will be procured and will have projects with a minimum capacity of 1 MW and a maximum capacity of 2 MW.

HPPC had also asked that the solar project developers bear the entire cost of transmission.

In reviewing the petition, HERC observed that the power will be procured by HPPC through competitive bidding and therefore it can impose procurement conditions based on deviations from previous regulations.

Recently, HERC approved deviations in the terms of PPA for the procurement of power by HPPC from a 10 MW solar PV project developed by the Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGCL).

In July 2018,  HERC issued an order amending the terms and conditions for tariff determinations from renewable energy sources, renewable purchase obligations, and renewable energy certificates.