The Telangana State's RFP to procure 2000MW solar power is unique in many ways.
Firstly, it is the largest procurement effort for solar power till date in India and larger than the previous RFPs under JNNSM by NVVN and SECI.
Secondly, it is the first time that procurement of large centralized power projects of up to 450MW capacity have been combined with procurement of 1MW to 10MW capacity projects in one single RFP. 1500MW of power is proposed to be injected into 220KV and 400KV substations and 500MW will be injected into 33kV and 132kV substations. From the details of the spare capacity available in each substation, it is heartening to see that almost 3000MW of power can be injected in the substations.
Thirdly, it has recognized that smaller and distributed projects are beneficial to the Discom by cutting down on the 4% losses charged by the Transco and has given a handicap for such projects by providing 13paisa per unit higher tariff over the lifetime of the project to give credit for saving in the transmission losses by the Discom. In reality, the avoided transmission losses in the distribution utility's own network would be higher and hopefully more such credits will be given for distributed solar power generation.
This unique blend of distributed versus centralized generation would be watched with keen interest and would provide direction for future planning. The distributed power will go for agricultural and rural feeders and may even supply power for agri pumpsets during the day when solar plant is generating. These points were among the highlights of the Solar Roadmap for Telangana presented to the CII Telangana State Council and are given below.
We hope the State will continue to be innovative and encourage rooftop solar and distributed solar power generation in a big way to meet the local needs in such unique ways.
