R-Power signs power purchase agreement with NTPC for its upcoming 100 MW solar power project at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power today signed a power purchase agreement with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam for a 100-Mw solar thermal power project in Rajasthan.

The project, being set up in the Bikaner region in Rajasthan, is expected to be commissioned within the next 28 months. It will be implemented by Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power.This is the company’s maiden solar power project and one of the country’s largest. Reliance Power is trying to set up 37,000 Mw, the largest capacity addition in the country’s private sector.

Reliance Power won this project in rate-based competitive bidding under the government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

The government plans to set up 1,100-Mw solar plants by 2013, under the mission’s first phase.

Two months ago, the government had allocated 650-Mw solar projects based on grid-based power and another 150 Mw for non-grid on tariff-based competitive bidding, said sources.

Other companies that have been sanctioned to set up 100-Mw solar plant at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan include Hyderabad-based Lanco Infratech and KVK Energy Ventures. Godawari Power and Ispat, and Corporate Ispat Alloys Ltd have also got the nod to set up 50-Mw plant each at Jaisalmer.

Each project would cost about Rs 12-14 crore per Mw, said sources.NVVNL is the designated nodal agency for procuring solar power by entering into PPAs with solar power developers under the Solar Mission.

Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Power, had announced plans to set up solar power plants of 600 Mw during the company’s annual general meeting last year.Reliance Power was planning to use advanced concentrating solar thermal technology to achieve a 32 percent capacity utilisation factor, the highest among all companies who had signed agreements with NVVN, said officials with Reliance Power.

During the recent visit of US President Barack Obama to Mumbai, the Export-Import Bank of the US and Reliance Power had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on providing $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of US goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 Mw gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 Mw renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.