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Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has extended the validity of its previous tariff orders for renewable energy projects.
On April 13, 2018, it had issued an order on wind power and the tariff was fixed at ₹2.86 per unit without accelerated depreciation and ₹2.80 per unit with accelerated depreciation.
“The validity of the order expires on March 31, 2020. Commission had initiated the process for issue of a new order on ‘Procurement of wind power and related issues’ by issue of a consultative paper in February 2020. Until a new order is issued, Commission extends the validity of the Order dated April 13, 2018,” the TNERC said.
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For solar projects, it had issued an order on March 29, 2019, in which tariff was determined at ₹3.04 per unit without accelerated depreciation and ₹2.80 per unit with accelerated depreciation.
The validity of the solar tariff order expires on March 31, 2020 and the TNERC said it had initiated the process for a new order. It extended the validity of the previous order until a new one is issued.
Similarly, the regulator has extended validity of its seperate orders dated March 28, 2018 for biomass based power plants and Bagasse based cogeneration power plants, until a new orders are issued.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has already said the delay in renewable energy projects due to disruption in supply on account of COVID-19 outbreak will be considered as a force majeure event. The developers will not have to pay any penalty for missing project deadlines, if they can prove that the delay was due to disruption in supply chains.
The MNRE has also told the states that the renewable energy should not be curtailed during the lockdown period except for grid safety reasons and payments should be made to the developers on regular basis as was done prior to the lockdown period.