The Mizoram Power Plant Development Corporation (MPPDC) has issued a tender for the procurement of 2,300 solar inverter chargers.

The chargers will be used to charge the batteries of existing inverters at MPPDC Power Station, located in Chakhang, which falls under Saiha district of Mizoram.

According to the tender, the capacity of the solar inverter charger will be 300/500W.

The Mizoram corporation will make up to 50 percent of the advance payment for the urgent supply guarantees with the agreement. The balance payment will be made after the successful delivery.

In July 2017, Mizoram had issued the Mizoram Solar Power Policy 2017. The policy was aimed at ensuring a reliable power supply and a sustainable energy mix for the state. As per the policy, the state had announced it would develop 80 MW of solar projects (rooftop + ground mounted) to meet 10.5 percent renewable purchase obligation by FY 2021-22.

Recently, Mercom has reported that the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) would soon issue a tender for 1,000 MW of solar capacity to be developed in the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, and Assam. The ceiling tariff would be set at ₹3 (~$0.042)/kWh.

Once this 1 GW of solar PV capacity is installed, it will help these states meet their renewable purchase obligation targets. In a report in January 2019, Mercom pointed out that Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura were the only states in northeastern India that had achieved a minimum 60 percent RPO compliance. The RPO compliance of Sikkim was 44.2 percent, Meghalaya was 30.9 percent, Tripura was 12.2 percent, Assam was 1.9 percent, Arunachal Pradesh was 0.6 percent, and Manipur was 0.1 percent.

In April 2017, Mizoram became the 27^th Indian State to join the Ujwal DISCOM (distribution company) Assurance Yojana (UDAY) program which was implemented by the government of India to assist in the financial and operational turnaround of DISCOMs.

The Indian solar market has expanded impressively over the past few years and as the market has grown the government has begun to pay attention to quality issues. The concern is valid as solar projects are expected to last 25 years it is important to make sure they are built using quality products including modules and inverters. Realizing the issue, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently issued guidelines for conducting tests on power inverters for use in PV power systems and utility-interconnected PV inverters. Since the notification was released on September 5, 2017, the deadline has been extended several times as the industry has been seeking more and more time for the compliance of the order.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer