Explore Business Standard
Power Purchase Bid
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has approved the purchase of over 4000 million units of power from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) during the next fiscal, after the state DISCOMS have approached the regulator seeking its nod. The SECI Power Sale Agreement (PSA) with Andhra DISCOMs became controversial after Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani was charged by the US Department of Justice over his role in a years-long scheme to allegedly pay USD 250 million bribe to Indian officials including from AP, in exchange for favourable solar power contracts of 7000 MW in 2021 when YSRCP was in power, an allegation refuted by the Indian conglomerate and also the AP opposition party separately. According to an order by APERC on Tariff for Retail Sale of Electricity during FY 2025-26', issued on Friday, the Commission consented to the PSA with detailed reasoning subject to the outcome in the AP High Court in the pending PILs with regard to the agreement. The .
The committee set up to recommend changes in the bidding guidelines for power projects would now build upon the SHAKTI scheme to help stranded assets get both coal supply and power sale contracts.Close to 16,000 Mw of coal-based power projects in India neither have coal supply or a power purchase agreement (PPA) with any state. Of this, 6,250 Mw is installed and 9,854 Mw was under construction as on August.The committee is chaired by Pratyush Sinha, former central vigilance commissioner. "SHAKTI allows power units to get a medium-term PPA and coal supply for the same period or more, open for extension. The committee is looking to adopt a similar methodology in case-1 bidding of power projects," said an official.Under SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyla Transparently in India), government-owned Coal India offers assured coal supply to units through bidding. The units have to quote the discount in their power rates that they would offer after getting cheaper coal from ...