Solar power purchase price pegged at Rs 6.49 per unit

Hyderabad : Walking the extra mile in a bid to encourage renewable energy projects, the government has fixed price of solar power purchase price at Rs 6.49 per unit.

The cabinet sub-committee headed by Minister for Finance Anam Ramanarayana Reddy met on Tuesday and took the decision to buy solar power at Rs 6.49 per unit. He said that the government has fixed the price after studying the prices of solar energy in other states.

Reddy said that a decision on the surplus power generation at house tops will be taken later. He said that the Transco officials were directed to submit a report on roop-top solar energy price fixation within a month. Solar power tenders were called for and 330 companies participated in it, he said and added that the least bidder would be awarded the contract.

He said that the process of selecting the bidders would take about 30 days. In light of the severe power shortage, he said that the government wanted the solar projects to be completed as early as possible.

Referring to the tenders, he said that the government received tenders from 330 companies worth of producing 1730 MW against 1000 MW capacity. He said that the guidelines in producing and purchasing solar energy have been explained in the government solar energy policy � 2012 document. It is decided to give grid connectivity to 1893 sub-stations to receive 800 MW solar energy. He said that 550 MW power would be available from June because of reserving the power corridor.

Planning commission has targeted to produce 30,000 MW power from renewable energy during twelfth year plan. A target of 10,000 MW has been fixed for solar power projects during the 12th Plan. So far, 1045 MW of solar power projects have been installed in the country. Sub-committee members B Satyanarayana, N Raghuveera Reddy and J Geeta Reddy and officials of energy, Genco, Transco and Nedcap attended to the meeting.