India’s Railway Energy Management Company (REMC) has awarded 1GW of contracts to supply the railway network with round-the-clock (RTC) renewable energy.
The auction closed with contracts awarded to six companies for between 130MW and 200MW each. Ayana Renewable Power, Jindal Green, Bhalki Solar Power, Purvah Green Power, ReNew Solar Power and ACME Solar Holdings were successful in the e-Reverse auction, all with a quoted tariff of INR4.35 (US$0.049) per kilowatt-hour.
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The successful companies will be required to build solar or wind projects, in many instances co-located with energy storage, connected to the Interstate Transmission System (ISTS) and contracted under a direct power purchase agreement (PPA) with the railways. The tender document stipulates that the assets must have a minimum annual availability of 75% for the first three contractual years from commissioning and 85% thereafter.
ACME Solar Holdings, which secured 130MW of capacity in the auction, said the auction and its low price “demonstrates the competitiveness of renewable energy to provide high [capacity utilisation factor] power throughout the day by co-locating solar/wind and battery at the most competitive price”,
It added that meeting the rising 75%/85% availability rates will require contracted solar and energy storage capacity alongside an “optimal amount of complementary wind power as and when required”.
ACME said it intends to commission its projects within 30 months of signing the PPA, using land and connectivity capacity it already has in its portfolio.
The PPA will reportedly stand for 25 years, and permitting, construction costs and interconnection is the responsibility of the companies developing capacity.
ACME currently has 2,934MW of operational renewable energy and energy storage capacity, with a further 4,456MW of capacity under construction, including 13.5GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity. Earlier this month, the company secured a 450 MW/1800 MWh contract for firm and dispatchable renewable energy in a public auction run by the Navratna public sector utility company Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN).
India has set an ambitious target to deploy 500GW of non-fossil fuel generation capacity by 2030, driven by solar PV. Grid constraints and challenging public tender environments are hampering progress though, according to Abhinav Jindal, deputy general manager at Indian power firm NTPC’s Power Management Institute, who spoke to PV Tech Premium last week.
