Jakson Group, an engineering, procurement, and construction company, announced that it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) for a 70 MW solar power project at Amguri, Sivasagar district of Assam.

The company said it had won the bid to develop the project in the state based on a request for proposal (RfP) issued in 2019.

Mercom had previously reported that the Assam Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGCL) retendered 70 MW of grid-connected solar projects to be developed at Amguri Solar Park in the Sivasagar district of the state. The tender was initially floated in January 2019.

“With this project, our solar IPP portfolio now stands at 300 MW, of which 80 MW is operational, and 220 MW is under various stages of execution. We plan to scale this to 1 GW in the next two-three years,” said Atul Gupta, Assistant Vice President – IPP Business, Jakson Group.

“With the support of APDCL, we are confident of completing this project on schedule in the next 12-14 months,” Gupta added.

In addition to the PPA, Jakson also signed a land lease and project implementation support agreement with APDCL for the project.

Assam is one of the least developed states in the country when it comes to the expansion of renewable energy sources. According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, the state currently has a negligible solar capacity with merely 100 MW under development as of December 2019.

Last month, the state reissued a request for selection to procure a cumulative capacity of 100 MW of power from grid-connected solar projects in four regions of the state through a tariff-based competitive bidding process. The tender was initially issued in January 2018. These projects were set to be developed under four tenders of 25 MW each.

Recently, Mercom reported that the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission notified that for captive power projects which were commissioned before April 1, 2016, the renewable purchase obligation would be 1% for solar and 3% of non-solar.

Previously, it was reported that the state floated a tender to develop 30 MW of solar PV power projects. The projects of 10 MW each are to be set up in the lower Assam zone, central Assam zone, and in the region of Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi.