The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has approved a request for procurement (RfP) and a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 1 GW of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects.

The 1 GW capacity was tendered by the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) in January 2018. The minimum project size for an individual bidder was set at 5 MW and the maximum project size was 1,000 MW.

The bid-submission deadline for the 1 GW tender by UPNEDA has been extended from February 6 to April 9, 2018.

The UPERC has approved certain modifications to the competitive bidding guidelines issued by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for solar PV projects.

According to UPERC, in case the State Transmission Utility (STU) is not able to provide connectivity to the proposed solar project due to technical reasons and is unable to evacuate the power to the STU substation, then the PPA should be treated as null and void without any financial liability for either party. Accordingly, a provision should be made in the RfP and the PPA.

In cases of generation compensation for off-take constraints due to transmission infrastructure or grid unavailability, the UPNEDA/UPPCL will provide for the compensation if the generation off-take is not possible for fault not attributable to the generator.

The power will be procured in million-unit (MU) terms, but the bidding will be conducted in MW terms.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, the state of Uttar Pradesh has an installed solar capacity of approximately 670 MW and a project pipeline of approximately 300 MW.

In December 2017, Mercom reported that the Uttar Pradesh’s cabinet of ministers approved the state’s Solar Policy 2017 and gave it a retroactive effective date of November 6, 2017. The policy will remain in place for five years unless a new policy is put in place.