SJVN bags 1,000 MW solar power project

State-run SJVN on Friday said it has won a 1,000 MW grid-connected solar project worth Rs 5,500 crore in bidding conducted by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA).

''SJVN bagged 1,000 MW Grid-connected Solar PV Power Project through Request for Proposal (RFP) floated by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA),'' a company statement said.

Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, SJVN informed in the statement that the company bagged the project through the open competitive bidding process for quoted capacity of 1,000 MW at the maximum tariff of Rs 2.45 per unit.

Sharma told that SJVN bagged the full quoted capacity of 1,000 MW at a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support of Rs 44.72 lakh per MW by the Government of India. The power generated from the above projects shall be solely for self-use or use by government/government entities, either directly or through DISCOMs.

Sharma further said that SJVN participated in a VGF based competitive bidding process for a solar project of capacity 5,000 MW floated by IREDA.

He further informed that the tentative cost of the Construction and Development of this project is Rs 5,500 crore. The project is expected to generate 2,365 million units (MU) in the first year and the project cumulative energy generation for 25 years would be about 55062 MU.

Sharma told that presently, SJVN has a total installed capacity of 2,016.5 MW which includes two hydropower plants of 1,912 MW and four renewable power plants of 104.5 MW (two solar plants of 6.9 MW and 2 wind plants of 97.6 MW). Earlier, the SJVN bagged three solar projects totaling 345 MW in the state of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. All these solar projects have also been bagged through Open Competitive Bidding, it stated.

Sharma further said that, with this allotment, the SJVN now has 1,345 MW of solar projects under execution. He stated that all these solar projects are scheduled to be commissioned by March 2023-24, which shall be a gigantic leap for SJVN's renewable capacity. The Government of India has envisaged the vision of Power to All 24X7 and has set a target of 175 GW of renewables, out of which 100 GW is to be met through solar by 2022. In September last year at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced increasing the renewable energy target to 450 GW by 2030 from 175 GW by 2022. He informed that Union Minister of Power & New and Renewable Energy R K Singh is extending great guidance and support to all power sector PSUs to go aggressively in harnessing solar power potential to achieve the goal of 24X7 affordable and green power. In line with the target set by the Government of India, the SJVN has set its shared vision of capacity addition of 5,000 MW by 2023, 12,000 MW by 2030, and 25,000 MW by 2040.

The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) means a one-time grant or deferred grant, provided to support infrastructure projects that are economically justified but fall short of financial viability.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)