Safeguard tax imposed on solar electricity prices in India rise

In the first large-scale national solar tender after the imposition of safeguard duty on imported solar cells, the price of solar electricity in India rose by more than 6%.

NTPC, India's largest power generation company, conducted a tender process
for solar power projects up to 2 GW.
The tender is almost similar to the one issued by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), and developers are free to choose the location of
the project.
In such tenders, NTPC (and SECI) sign back-to-back power purchase agreements
with project developers and distribution companies interested in solar procurement.

Acme Solar is once again the lowest bidder in the auction, as has been the case with similar tenders over the past few months
.
The company plans to develop 600 MW of solar power capacity
at a rate of Rs 2.
59/kWh.
It is also the largest single allocation
of solar capacity in any tender.

Acme has also previously secured 600 MW of solar development capacity
in SECI's first 2 GW scale solar power tender.
The company's bid was Rs 2.
44/kWh
.
Subsequently, the company again won the bid for 600 MW of capacity
at the same tax rate in the SECI national solar tender.
In fact, the 2.
4 GW capacity allocation
was eliminated in the second tender because SECI considered that the tax rate quoted by all developers except Acme was too high.

The encouraging part of this tender is the overwhelming participation
of many project developers.
As the first major tender to be held after the introduction of safeguard liability for imported solar cells, the industry as well as the government will be closely watching the outcome of
the tender.

A total of 15 companies participated in the tender, providing 6.
3 GW of capacity, compared to the size of the tender of only 2 GW
.
The companies' bids range from Rs 2.
61/kWh to Rs 3.
10/kWh
.