In a dynamic that has played out in various parts of world like Spain, Greece and Australia, retroactive cuts to solar FITs or PPAs have been considered in the Indian state of Gujarat. But in a positive sign for the photovoltaic project integrators and owners, the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) has dismissed state government moves to cut the rates retroactively.
Gujarat is Indias leading province in terms of solar installations, with almost 1 GW of installed capacity, across 88 projects. Contracts signed in 2010 were to lock in rates for 25 years.
However last month, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVN), the state off-taker of the power, applied for payments to be cut. According to reporting from RechargeNews, GUVN had said that the rates where too high, as developers had overstated the installed costs of photovoltaics. The utility had applied for the rate to be cut from around 12.54 rupees/kWh to 9 rupees/kWh (US$0.14).
Bloomberg reports that electricity regulator (GERC) has ruled that parties to the contracts signed are not able to alter the terms. GERC determined that such a petition would have to been issued within 60 days of the order the FITs and that PPAs are not be reopened.
The Bloomberg continues that the proposal to cut the rate had been objected to by companies such as Moser Baer India, Esser Energy, Tata Power and Welspun Energy.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.