India ROUND-UP: Weather and low cost power portals, Maharashtra 2GW tenders, Tamil net metering cuts

June 26, 2017
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email

Piyush Goyal launches weather and lowest cost power Portals

Credit: Government of India

Energy minister Piyush Goyal has launched a new 'Weather Portal' for the power sector aiming to help distribution companies (Discoms) to manage power supply and plan infrastructure availability in response to extreme weather.

An Indian government release said heat waves, cold waves, wind storms and floods can dramatically affect production means or the electrical grid. Therefore the portal provides regional weather summaries, updated forecasts every three hours and projections for the next six days.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Goyal has also launched a second portal named 'MERIT' (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency). This will facilitate must-run status for hydro power and renewables as well as transparency in the clean energy market.Goyal has previoulsy condemned Discoms for failing to implement the priority status for renewable energy plants.

The government stated: “It will also promote competition for lower costs as information will be available to all stakeholders including generators and utilities for more efficient procurement. Since the information will be available to all consumers on continuous basis it will create pressure on utilities for continued efficiency.”

Maharashtra 2GW of solar tenders

The Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) has invited expressions of interest for the development of a 500MW solar park in Dondaicha, according to Mercom Capital Group.

MAHAGENCO has also invited expressions of interest for the 1.5GW solarisation of agricultural feeders in the state, with projects ranging from 2-50MW in size.

Tamil Nadu ‘drastic’ net metering cuts

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) has planned cuts to net-metering for solar consumers.

Mercom Capital Group reported that TANGEDCO included recent record low tariffs as one of the reasons for the proposed cuts. The state has a 3.5GW rooftop target for 2022, but has so far installed just 91MW.

A Mercom release stated: “The most important aspect of TANGEDCO’s proposal is to reset the net-metering tariff by calculating a rate of 50% of the lowest solar tender during the previous financial year, or set the rate of 50% of the solar preferential tariff issued by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) corresponding to the financial year, whichever is less.”

Current rates are between INR6.63-7.23/kWh under various categories, but, if the plans are adopted, these could see a “drastic reduction” to between INR2.20-2.55/kWh.

In recent news, although Tamil Nadu’s latest 1.5GW large-scale solar tender had seen significant oversubscription with 3,774.5MW of submissions, most of the key solar players in India did not participate.

Read Next

October 16, 2025
Jakson Green and Blueleaf Energy have reached financial close for the 840MWp Bikaner solar projects in Rajasthan, western India. 
October 15, 2025
Wood Mackenzie has warned of a supply bottleneck as the renewable energy shift drives a spike in global copper demand over the next decade.
October 15, 2025
Ciel & Terre has launched a new floating PV structure designed to address the increasingly large scale of floating solar projects.
October 15, 2025
Indian module manufacturer Saatvik Green Energy, through its subsidiary Saatvik Solar Industries, has secured solar PV module orders worth INR6.89 billion (US$78 million).
October 14, 2025
India has installed 4.9GW of residential rooftop solar capacity in the first half of 2025, according to a report by IEEFA and JMK Research.
October 10, 2025
NTPC Renewable Energy Limited has signed an MoU with the Government of Gujarat to develop 15GW renewable energy projects in Gujarat.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK