Tata Power has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL), has received a Letter of Award (LoA) from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) to develop a 120 MW solar project in the state.

The solar energy generated from the project will be supplied to GUVNL under a 25-year long power purchase agreement (PPA).

In February this year, GUVNL had issued a request for selection (RfS) for the purchase of power from 500 MW of grid-connected solar projects (phase VIII). The maximum tariff payable to the selected bidder was set at ₹2.65 (~$0.037)/kWh.

Later, Mercom had reported that the GUVNL announced the list of successful bidders in the auction. The successful bidders were Vena Energy Clean Power Private Limited, which won a capacity of 40 MW at the quoted price of ₹2.61 (~$0.035)/kWh, Juniper Energy Green Power Limited which won a capacity of 190 MW at ₹2.63 (~$0.036)/kWh. Tata Power placed its bid for 200 MW but won a capacity of 120 MW in line with the bucket filling method at a tariff of ₹2.64 (~$0.037)/kWh.

“The project is required to be commissioned within 18 months from the date of execution of the PPA,” stated the company.

Referring to the LoA, Praveer Sinha, the chief executive officer at Tata Power, said that with this award, the company’s cumulative capacity of renewables would reach 3,457 MW.

The company also noted that the project is expected to generate about 300 million units (MUs) of energy every year and will offset nearly 300 million kgs of carbon dioxide annually. It added that out of the cumulative capacity of 3,457 MW, 2,637 MW is operational, while 820 MW is under implementation (including the recently won 120 MW).

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, GUVNL has auctioned ~2.75 GW of solar projects under (Phase I to Phase VIII). Out of this, 500 MW capacity under Phase I is now operational.

Image credit: Jeremy Buckingham / CC BY