Indian state-owned utility SJVN will develop 1.2GW of solar PV projects to supply power to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) through a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) due to be signed in the coming days.
Through SJVN Green Energy Limited, its wholly-owned subsidiary, SJVN will develop a 200MW project in the state of Punjab and 1GW worth of PV elsewhere in the country. In its home state, the PSPCL will pay an agreed price of INR2.75 (US$0.03) per unit of energy, whilst the 1GW of power from elsewhere in India will be bought for INR2.54 per unit.
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The project is due to be commissioned within 18 months from the signing date of the PPA.
SJVN said that its portfolio in India has reached 55,527MW with the signing of this deal. In March, the utility secured US$111 million to fund 190MW of new solar projects in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
State-by-state, the solar makeup of India is far from balanced. Rajasthan is by far the most densely populated with solar PV energy, having installed almost half of the country’s capacity additions in 2022 according to research firm Bridge To India.
Punjab is a fairly small state in terms of actual capacity addition, largely due to the less favourable terrain and conditions for solar PV in the north and east of India. Earlier this month the PSPCL issued a call alongside the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for 500MW of solar PV power to be transmitted to the state via the interstate transmission system in a series of PPAs.
In September last year, SJVN proposed to develop 5GW worth of floating and ground-mounted solar in Punjab.