The Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVNL) has auctioned 8.6 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar under RESCO II model. The projects will be developed at more than 13 locations across the state.

Interacting with Mercom, Manu Srivastava, the principal secretary and commissioner at the New and Renewable Energy Department of Madya Pradesh, stated, “In RESCO II tender, we discovered a first-year rate of ₹1.38 (~$0.0186)/kWh, a new low in the central government buildings (CPSUs) and ₹1.63 (~$0.0220)/kWh for state government medical colleges.”

The bids were opened publicly at the RE-Invest 2018 which is a three-day exposition being held in Greater Noida.

Immediately after the opening of the bid, the work orders were issued and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) were signed, which often takes an indeterminate amount of time.

“This has made the process extremely transparent, trustworthy and prompt,” added Srivastava.

MPUVNL told Mercom that 43 percent subsidy is being provided for the government sector where government of India will provide 25 percent and government of Madhya Pradesh will provide the remaining 20 percent. Two percent will be deducted as administrative charges.

Similarly, for private non-profit sector, government of India will provide 30 percent subsidy and Madhya Pradesh government will provide 20 percent subsidy (only for 25 kW). Two percent will go as administrative charges making a total of 48 percent for a 25 kW project. Subsidy for 500 kW project will be approximately 29 percent.

MPUVNL recently auctioned 35 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar under RESCO model, in which the lowest tariff of ₹1.58 (~$ 0.022)/kWh was discovered for central government buildings and ₹1.74 (~$0.0235)/kWh was discovered for government colleges. The prices discovered in that auction were then considered to be the lowest for rooftop solar in India. But, within a month, the glass ceiling has been shattered again.

The tariff quoted in this auction is ₹0.20 (~$0.0027)/kWh lower than the previous tariff for CPSUs and ₹0.11 (~$0.00149)/kWh lower for government colleges.

Recently, Mercom had reported that according to this MPUVNL tender, the first-year tariffs quoted in this auction are set to escalate by 3 percent per year over a period of 25 years.

Mercom reported only recently that MPUVNL RESCO tender had witnessed the participation of 31 developers. The 35+ MWp rooftop tender capacity was oversubscribed by more than 630 percent.

Under this tender, 291 government colleges, 159 police establishments, municipal corporations, private entities are covered.

Earlier, responding to the uncertainty regarding the imposition of safeguard duty, the MPUVNL came up with a clarification for its latest solar rooftop RESCO tender proactively.