When Solairedirect quoted Rs. 7.49/kWh for a 5 MW plant allocation under the Phase 1Batch 2 of JNNSM in December 2011, the news sent shock waves through the industry and it was thought at that time that the bottom price has been reached. But just when you think that the lowest bids under a solar policy cannot go any further, a new low is reached in every subsequent bidding at various states.
In Tamil Nadu, the lowest bid quoted was Rs. 5.97/kWh, but it had a 5% escalation for the first 10 years. Rajasthan soon followed with a lowest bid of Rs. 6.45/kWh. Punjab was an exception with the lowest bid at for Rs. 7.2/kWh.
Now, we are witnessing a new bottom at Rs.5.51/kWh under the Karnataka Solar Policy(More details about the RfP can be accessed here) . The lowest bid was by Sun Pharma Medication. There was one more bid under Rs. 6/kWh and that was by Alfa Infrapop. Some details of the bid results from the financial opening of bids on 19 August 2013 are as follows.
a. Total allocation : 130 MW for a PPA duration of 25 years.
b. Number of winners : 17
c. Lowest tariff: Rs. 5.51/kWh and Highest tariff : Rs. 8.05/kWh. The tariff spread is Rs. 2.54/kWh.
d. Average of the winning bids – Rs. 7.07/kWh
e. There is no L1 tariff
f. 11 of the 17 winning bids opted for 10 MW each.
g. The details of the distribution of the winners is as follows.
The list of winners is given below.
(*Capacity allotted after a draw of lots on 20 August 2013)
While the lowest winning bid is Rs. 5.51, a majority of the winners(65%) – 11 out of 17, have a tariff of more than Rs.7/kWh, which augurs well for the state’s solar policy.
With these wins, Welspun and Azure cement their positions as the leading project developers in the country.
The list of winners can be downloaded from the KREDL website here.
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4 thoughts on “Karnataka Solar – Welspun, Azure, Astonfield among winners”
Comments are closed.
Is the PPA for 20 years or 25 years?
I think it would be useful to have term of the PPA mentioned along with Tariff – as it also effects the Tariff rate and IRR.
Cheers
Vikram
Thanks for the suggestion, Vikram. It is 25 Years. Updated in the article also.
These lowest tariff bids are coming at this time, when Rupee v/s. USD has jumped from Rs. 54 to Rs. 69……..
Developer may face a huge cost shoot up due to forex variation. Otherwise average tariff at Rs. 6 seems safe IRR for 25 years tenure for grid parity.
How is it to explain, that the Indian PV market is driving itself against the wall. Full speed and with open eyes.
A selling price of 5.51 Rs per unit is only theoretically possible. On a white paper. Certainly not in real life.
If India follows this way, it will destroy all their attempts to feed the energy demand of a growing economy. Not even 5 years it will take and the blind eyes of the solar community will receive the light of the truth.
There is no theoretically chance to avoid a total collaps of the Indian PV market.
Why? Only 2 reasons for the start:
1. 12% to 16% interest rate
2. the technical imperfection of ALL PV systems that are installed in the last 2-3 years.
None of them – and this is serious spoken – non of them have a lifespan of 25 years, not 20 years, not 15 years. Probably not even 10 years.
This is not negativ thinking. This is matter af physical and chemical realities. Which nobody wants to hear. But light will come……
Christian Kuen
CEO