The Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) has passed an order asking the state’s distribution licensee to allow the grid synchronization of the project, thereby providing relief to Clean Solar Power (Chitradurga) Private Limited, the project’s solar project developer (SPD).  TSERC responded to the SPD’s filed petition.

The project was allotted to the SPD under a competitive bidding process to set up a 40 MW solar power project near Siddipet Medak district coupled with a 132 kV transmission line. The PPA was signed between the petitioner and Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited (SPDCTL) and the Transmission Corporation of Telangana Limited (TCTL) on February 2, 2016.

The project subsequently received approval from the chief electrical inspector under which the SPD was to energize 25 MW out of the 40 MW capacity on July 20, 2017 and remaining 15 MW capacity on August 11, 2017.

However, the project was delayed due to a “force majeure condition,” as the SDP explained in the petition. “Force majeure” refers to any unforeseeable circumstances which affects the development of a project.

The SPD argued that a prolonged outage may disrupt the normal operation and maintenance of a solar project.  It also stated that a delay in synchronization may cause moisture damage to the solar panels, a failure of UPS batteries due to lack of charging, and theft.

TERC then passed an order requesting SPDCTL to synchronize the project to the grid, stating that the project must be commissioned in the best interest of consumers and society.

“This project must be commissioned as it will generate clean energy and will prevent the waste of precious natural resources.  The petitioner invested ₹291 billion (~$0.040 billion) to set up the project which also includes debt raised from banks.  If the interim orders are not passed, the petitioner will suffer a total loss of investment and it would cause,” read the order.

Telangana is one of India’s top solar states. Per Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, the state has approximately 3.5 GW of operational large scale solar projects. India recently crossed the 25 GW threshold of total installed solar capacity, moving closer towards its target of 100 GW by 2022.