India’s authorities have given solar developers missing their deadlines the option to pay to keep their grid connectivity instead of losing it, Reuters has reported, citing the country’s Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. With grid connectivity a limited resource, space should not be kept unused, the regulator said.
According to the regulator, if a solar or wind developer misses its own project deadline, they can remain on the list for a grid connection, but they would have to pay the equivalent of $10.48 per megawatt per day until they complete their project. Developers would have to pay three times that if they delay the start of commercial operations at their installations.
The relief is not permanent, however. Developers would have three months to catch up on land requirements, six months for finding the money to build their installation, and 12 months to commission the completed projects, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission also said.
Earlier this month, New Delhi told wind and solar developers they would be exempt from transmission charges if their projects face commissioning delays because of transmission capacity constraints.
The relief will only cover projects whose developers had signed at least seven-year power sale contracts by the end of this year. In earlier moves to stimulate more wind and solar, the government began phasing out interstate transmission charges for alternative energy generation projects in July last year.
India’s government has a target of building 500 GW of non-hydrocarbon generation capacity by 2030. Solar power currently accounts for 29% of the country’s non-hydrocarbon generation capacity. Plans were to expand it from 162 GW currently to over 292 GW by 2030, but this target has come under threat due to recent legislative changes seeking to reduce dependence on imported solar components from China, because while local module capacity is substantial, at 200 GW, solar cell manufacturing capacity is just 27 GW.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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