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Tepid response, HC court stay hit Karnataka solar power auctions

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s solar programme has received two setbacks in quick succession: its latest solar auction for 1200 MW has been postponed, while the results of an earlier one for 860 MW have been stayed by the Karnataka High Court.

Karnataka Renewable Energy Development (KREDL) invited bids for 1200 MW of projects at the Pavagada Solar Park in Tumkur district on January 31 this year, setting out dates through February on which various stages of the auction would be held. But on February 22, it issued a notice saying the earlier auction notice had been recalled and set fresh dates for the auction in early March.

The reason it had to do so was because hardly any developers responded. Azure Power and Shapoorji Pallonji, both of whom had put in bids for 100 MW at the auction, received identical notices saying the tender had been recalled “due to minimal number of responses”. It emerged that these two were the only ones who bid — seeking a mere 200 MW together — in the 1200 MW auction.

KREDL’s fresh auction announcement includes a long “addendum” which relaxes a number of the conditions set in the earlier tender, which suggests that it was these stiff conditions which restrained developers from bidding.