Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy R.K. Singh informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday in reply to a question by TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas that Andhra Pradesh Power Distribution Companies (discoms) have not been making payments to renewable energy (wind and solar) generators for over one year.
The State government has constituted a high-level Negotiation Committee for PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) for reviewing and bringing down the high wind and solar energy purchase prices.
Subsequently, the Southern discom had directed solar and wind developers to reduce the tariff to ₹2.43 unit and to submit the revised/reduced monthly power supply bills.
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The committee’s constitution was set aside by the High Court. Further, instances of abrupt disconnection of wind power plants from substation (State grid) and irregular curtailment of power have been reported by the renewable energy (RE) generators from Andhra Pradesh.
Advice to State govt.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) advised the State government that the contractual agreements were sacrosanct and should not be revisited unless there was a specific provision to do so in the agreement or a case of malafide/ corruption has been established.
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The discoms were requested to honour the PPAs and ‘must run’ status accorded to the wind and solar power projects as per the provisions of Indian Electricity Grid Code 2010.
In the above matter, the RE generators approached the HC to set aside the government’s and discom’s orders. The High Court ordered that the terms of the contract have to be honoured and the State could not give directions to discoms or to the generators that the price was high.