Mumbai: Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd.
(MSEDCL) has received a low-level record of Rs 2.42 per unit to buy electricity from renewable energy sources for consumers throughout the state.
The low level of purchase will eventually benefit more than 2.6 consumers of housing, commercial and industry whose electricity bills can go down in the near future, officials said.
The country is all regulated to be green by turning to the target of 17,360 Megawatts (MW) from solar projects in five years.
On Wednesday, MSEDCL announced that he floated the tender and invited a bid for 500 MW of Surya Energy recently where he got this lowest bid of Rs 2.42 per unit.
It gets a lower bid of Rs 2.62 per unit for a floating tender to get 500 MW of wind-solar hybrid energy.
It is lower than the level of purchasing thermal energy on average Rs 4 per unit, said an official.
It was also lower than the level of purchase of renewable energy MSEDCL, namely Rs 2.90, in December 2019.
“We received an extraordinary response and the bidder was also willing to give a total power of 4,615 MW to MSEDCL, which included 3,165 MW solar and 1,450 mw wind-solar , “said an official.
This, 1,000 MW can be purchased in a year.
Energy Minister Nitin Raut said that the Maharashtra Electrical Regulation Commission (Merc) has set a target of the state to meet 25% of its requests from renewable sources in the next five years.
The Department of Raut has announced in the past recently that there will be no new thermal generator units in Maharashtra.
In the past, MSEDC would buy renewable energy at high costs; Rs 2.74 per unit in 2018 and Rs 2.90 in 2019.
“As a result, financial burdens have an impact on our consumers.
With the approval of the state government, we decided to carry out a competitive tender process in May this year,” said Director of Managing MSEDCL Vijay Singhal.
Raut said that solar power and wind are now commercially feasible.
“Solar power will be much cheaper than heat power, profitable industry and agriculture (for daytime generations for farmers) in all states,” said Raut.
By 2030, there are plans to produce 30% power from diesel only.
MSEDCL will soon approach the Merc and tell about the final offer on solar power before signing an agreement with electrical suppliers.