End of thermal PPAs to help renewable power purchase, says SECI CMD

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), launched in 2011 as India’s dedicated agency for awarding renewable energy (RE) projects, is looking at busy years ahead. The state-owned entity, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which started tendering solar and wind projects, is now expanding into hybrid, round-the-clock, battery storage, hydrogen, and feeder solarisation. Jatindra Nath Swain, chairman and managing director, SECI, spoke to Shreya Jai about the growth prospects of the RE sector in India, the challenges, and plans. Edited excerpts:

India is targeting an addition of 450 Gw of renewable energy by 2030. Can you elab­o­rate on how far the target has been met?

We are on course to meet the target. Covid and the subsequent disruptions did not slow the tendering, but slowed the signing of power purchase agreements (PPAs) but those are picking up again. The wind and hybrid power projects that we offered have been more or less tied up. The RTC (round-the-clock power) tender of 0.4 Gw is 75 per cent tied up and the peak power tender of 1.2 Gw is 50 per cent tied up. In solar, of the 6.2 Gw awarded, 3 Gw is manufacturing-linked. We should be able to tie up buyers for all the awarded capacity and sign the power supply agreement (PSA) as well. We plan to award 15 Gw of wind, solar and hybrid this financial year.

What is the source-wise plan for 450 Gw and is there sufficient demand for it?

For 450 Gw, 280-300 Gw is solar and 140-150 Gw is wind. Pump hydro is part of it but not large hydro power.  The Ministry of Power has allowed discoms to exit thermal PPAs that are more than 25 years old. This would increase the procurement of RE. New capacity addition in RE with energy storage will be able to replace the thermal PPAs. The demand is also growing. Even if we take a conservative approach of 4 per cent growth in demand, that translates to 25 Gw of RE capacity addition every year.  

There has been a decline in the number of PPAs and PSAs signed by states. What is the status now?

Power demand dropped during Covid. As states were affected, we did not aggressively push for signing PPAs. It is not reluctance on the part of states. Now, PSAs are being signed. We will soon conclude PSA for 1 Gw solar in coming weeks. States such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal are showing interest. 

Several projects are facing delays in getting transmission connectivity, land acquisition and now ecology concerns... 

The plan for 66.5 Gw of transmission connectivity is ready. The transmission infrastructure will come up as and when long-term access (LTA) is applied for. So, transmission will not be a constraint on the growth of RE. There are hardly any cases where developers want to quit due to non-visibility in transmission.

Right now, in our tenders there is no insistence on doing an environment impact assessment (EIA) for RE projects because these are treated as green projects.  Most projects are anyway coming up in leased land and landowners are getting much more from the lease than agriculture, especially in single-crop lands. 

What are your plans in the newer green sectors?

In green hydrogen, we are waiting for the schemes to be finalised. Offshore wind has good potential in Tamil Nadu and to some extent in Gujarat, but the cost is double that of onshore wind projects. We also need to take fishermen and other stakeholders into confidence. In KUSUM, we will be taking up projects of solarisation of agriculture feeders. In solar manufacturing, the PLI scheme has come, so we may not be offering any tender as of now. In pumped-hydro projects, we might offer aggregate demand based tenders. 

How do you expect prices to move in solar and wind?

In wind, we will see the same tariff as it is now, unless a path-breaking technology emerges. In solar, however, we can see a gradual decrease. Over the years we can expect the solar tariff to be reasonable and cost-competitive and will lead the way in decarbonisation in the energy sector.