India's ACME Solar backing out of solar PPAs for 600 MW

Indian solar developer Acme Solar has terminated earlier in May its power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) for 600 MW of solar capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic and other issues with the project.

In December 2018, ACME signed the PPAs for the parks in Fatehgarh, Rajasthan at a tariff of INR 2.44 (USD 0.032/EUR 0.029) per kWh, the lowest rate for solar offered in Indian tenders.

The company informed the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERCI) of the contract terminations on May 14, according to records of proceedings posted on the regulator's website on May 18. The "force majeure" events cited by it included problems with the acquisition of land for a substation, the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on suppliers' manufacturing facilities, and delays in the commissioning of associated transmission infrastructure.

Such events have already delayed the projects by 15 months. Further delays are expected because of the uncertainty due to the global pandemic, making it impossible to put online the capacity within the time frame in the PPAs, ACME Solar told CERCI.

(INR 100.0 = USD 1.318/EUR 1.209)

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