Overview
- India’s Power Ministry directed REIAs including SECI, NTPC, NHPC and SJVN to execute power purchase agreements directly with developers when no buyer is in place, with a November 30 compliance deadline.
- If direct PPAs are not feasible, agencies may cancel tenders, a step the government says will be used only as a last resort and executed in a phased, case-by-case manner.
- Government data show 43.9 GW of awarded capacity lacks signed PSAs, while clean-energy projects totaling about 50 GW have been unable to go online due to unfinished transmission lines and regulatory delays.
- The largest backlogs are held by NHPC (15.8 GW), NTPC (12.4 GW), SJVN (10 GW) and SECI (3.9 GW), and SECI has already canceled some tenders that were unlikely to secure buyers.
- Policy measures under review include revised contracting and due-diligence processes, greater emphasis on storage, hybrids and FDRE, demand aggregation, a review of the green shoe option, and a ₹2.4 lakh crore transmission buildout with GNA reforms to relieve congestion.