The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has approved the two petitions filed by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) seeking permission to go ahead with tenders of 1,500 MW of grid-connected solar and wind projects each.

In March 2018, Mercom had reported about TANGEDCO’s plans to tender 3 GW of renewable energy capacity.

The TANGEDCO had sought TNERC’s approval to go ahead with the tender of 1,500 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects with an upper tariff ceiling of ₹3 (~$0.044)/kWh. The TNERC has provided its approval but has directed the TANGEDCO to issue three separate tenders of 500 MW in phases one after the other and has fixed an upper tariff ceiling of ₹3 (~$0.044)/kWh.

TANGEDCO had also sought TNERC’s approval to go ahead with the tendering of 1,500 MW of wind projects with an upper tariff ceiling of ₹2.65 (~$0.0396)/kWh. TNERC has provided its approval in this case too, directing TANGEDCO to issue three separate tenders of 500 MW in phases one after the other and has fixed upper tariff ceiling of ₹2.65 (~$0.0396)/kWh.

TNERC decided on phased tendering because if power is procured in stages considering appropriate bid size, it would induce more competition in the bidding process thereby facilitating TANGEDCO to get the real benefit of discovering a competitive price in the reverse bidding process.

To fulfill Tamil Nadu’s solar renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirement of 4,553 MW for the financial year (FY) 2018-19, the state still requires 743 MW. To fulfill the solar RPO requirement of 6,223 MW for FY 2019-20, 2,413 MW of solar is required.

To fulfill the state’s non-solar RPO requirement of 10.25 percent for FY 2018-19, Tamil Nadu requires 1,679 MW of wind energy capacity addition.

Tamil Nadu is already one of the top solar states in India with over 1.7 GW of installed solar capacity, according to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker. The planned tenders are poised to further strengthen the state’s strong project development pipeline of approximately 2.4 GW.

Image credit: GERC