With the control period for solar power tariff ending at the end of March, the Tamil Nadu Energy Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has put out a consultative paper to issue a comprehensive tariff for the coming year. The commission is soliciting comments from stakeholders till March 3 before finalising the tariff.
Last year, the TNERC extended the control period – a timeframe for which a specific price per unit is given to solar power developers – from March 2015 till March 2016.
Under the existing control period, companies are paid Rs. 7.01 per unit for units set up till March 2016, an issue that had become a bone of contention late last year after the Adani Group announced its plans to set up a 648-MW plant in Ramanathapuram district. Under the current proposal, the TNERC is looking to adopt a price closer to what the CERC recommended in a draft order issued in December 2015 of Rs. 5.0132 crore per MW.
The Commission has proposed to adopt a capital cost of Rs. 5.05 crore per MW for solar photovoltaic projects and Rs. 12 crore per MW for solar thermal projects in the upcoming order.
“The pricing trend in the photovoltaic industry indicates continuous drop in cost of PV modules. There is also a decrease in the cost of invertors. With advancements in technology, higher capacity utilisation factors have been reported,” the Commission argued in the consultative paper.
However, the tariff paid by Tamil Nadu has been in line with the recommendations of the CERC. With accelerated depreciation (AD), the CERC had recommended Rs. 6.35 per unit for solar PV, and Rs. 7.04 per unit without accelerated depreciation. Tamil Nadu’s tariff with AD was Rs.6.28 per unit and Rs. 7.01 per unit without AD.
