Giving a boost to the Andhra Pradesh government’s target to generate 5,000 MW of solar energy by 2019, Union government sanctioned a 1,500 MW solar park at Kadapa.
National Thermal Power Corporation will be inviting the bids in two months for the latest solar park to be completed by March 2017.
Mr. Ajay Jain, Secretary, Energy, who held a meeting on Thursday with the developers of renewable energy- solar and wind power- to review the progress of solar power projects worth 619 MW for which PPAs were entered by the Discoms said March 4 was set as the deadline for completing the 619 MW solar power projects.
“We told the developers that the deadline will not be extended and they are confident of meeting the it,” he said.
AP government was earlier sanctioned two solar parks at Anantapur and Kurnool and NTPC was entrusted with calling the bids and entering into agreements. While work on 250 MW project started at Anantapur, tenders would be called for the remaining 750 MW by the month-end.
For Kurnool solar park, bids were invited for 10x50 MW units, 350 MW and 3x50 MW and they would be opened on August 22 and 24. The government was confident of getting competitive tariff rates for solar power as recently the tariff was quoted at Rs.6 per unit in Madhya Pradesh and it would not be a surprise if in the latest bids in the State, it could come down to Rs.5 a unit.AP Genco would also take up a 500 MW solar park and the board approved it. While a target was set to give 4000 solar pump sets to farmers, so far 700 pump sets were installed.
The outlook for wind power was also looking good, Mr. Jain said. Of the target of 4,000 MW by 2019, 1000 MW wind power units would be commissioned this year. About 12 to 15 wind power developers attended the meeting and works were on track due to good coordination between Transco, NEDCAP, GoI and developers.
The State was surging ahead in the country in energy conservation by shifting to LED street lights in all municipalities in phases by March 2016. While LED street lighting was done in Visakhapatnam, it would be competed in Vijayawada by August-end and in Tirupati, Guntur and other places by March, 2016.
The government was also distributing 57 lakh LED bulbs for domestic sector in all districts beginning with Vizag, Vizianagaram, Krishna, Prakasam and Chittoor. Energy efficient pump sets were being distributed to farmers to replace 2,000 conventional pump sets under a pilot project in East Godavari, he said.
While distribution of energy efficient fans started in West Godavari under a voluntary scheme to save on electricity bill, it would soon be extended to air-conditioners and refrigerators, he said.
