CHENNAI: Amid continuing power outage issues across the state, the Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation Limited (TNGECL) is planning to launch an online portal on October 1 to receive applications for new renewable energy (RE) projects. TNGECL held an online meeting with associations of RE developers and investors on Monday and sought their suggestions on the proposed portal and application procedure.
An official said the application process on the portal will have 10 stages. In the first two stages, developers or investors will have to submit basic details, pay the application fee and furnish the security deposit. The Superintending Engineer (Solar) will subsequently validate the proposed project within 10 days.
Any clarifications sought during the process will have to be addressed within 30 days. Once the proposal is accepted, a feasibility report will be prepared in the fourth stage, the official said. In the next stages, the developer will have to submit land-related documents within six months.
After obtaining the required clearances and completing the connectivity process, the developer can commence construction of the plant, the official added. The move comes as the state seeks to augment its renewable energy capacity and improve power availability, particularly during periods of high demand and fluctuations in renewable energy generation. “We are planning to add at least 1,500 MW of solar power capacity along with battery energy storage systems (BESS) by the end of the current financial year,” a senior official told TNIE.
K Venkatachalam of the Renewable Energy Producers Association said TNGECL had formalised the procedure for uploading proposals on the portal to seek connectivity for new RE projects, including wind, solar and hybrid projects with BESS. However, he pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) had already issued regulations titled “Detailed Procedure for Grant of Connectivity to the Intra-State Transmission System” and prescribed formats for submitting connectivity applications. “Whether TNGECL will adopt the formats already prescribed by TNERC or introduce new formats remains to be seen,” Venkatachalam told TNIE.
He further said the proposed process makes clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and consent orders from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) mandatory. However, such EIA and consent requirements are already exempted for renewable energy projects, he pointed out.
Similarly, obtaining a Unique ID from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is a post-commissioning process and can be done only after the project is commissioned. Hence, making the CEA Unique ID a precondition for the process is also an anomaly, he added.
