The Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC) has set generic levelized tariffs for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects for the first six months of the financial year (FY) 2019-20. These generic tariffs will apply for the period starting October 1, 2019, and ending March 31, 2020.

The tariffs will be applicable in cases where the joint petition for the approval of a power purchase agreement (PPA) has been submitted to the HPERC on or after April 1, 2019, but not later than September 30, 2019, and also those solar PV projects that have been commissioned on or before March 31, 2021.

These generic levelized tariffs have been set under HPERC (Promotion of Generation from the Renewable Energy Sources and Terms and Conditions for Tariff Determination) Regulations, 2017.

Keeping in mind the geographical and topographical conditions of the state and to promote smaller capacities of solar PV projects at different locations, the HPERC has created separate categories of solar PV projects of up to 1 MW capacity and those up to 5 MW capacity.

For solar PV projects to be set up in rural and undeveloped areas of Himachal Pradesh, the HPERC has set ₹3.98 (~$0.0571)/kWh as the generic tariff for solar PV projects of capacity up to 1 MW and ₹3.94 (~$0.057)/kWh as the generic tariff for solar projects of capacity more than 1 MW and up to 5 MW.

For solar PV projects to be set up in industrial and urban areas of Himachal Pradesh, the HPERC has fixed ₹4.06 (~$0.0583)/kWh as the generic levelized tariff for solar PV project of capacity up to 1 MW and ₹4.02 (~$0.0577)/kWh as the generic levelized tariff for solar PV project of capacity more than 1 MW and up to 5 MW.

These tariffs will not apply to projects implemented by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and to solar PV projects which are installed by consumers within their premises (rooftop or ground mounted) under the net-metering program.

Recently, Maharashtra, Bihar and Tamil Nadu fixed new solar generic tariffs.