Jal Vidyut Nigam may set up 200 MW solar park at Rihand

LUCKNOW : The Uttar Pradesh Jal Vidyut Nigam, a state government-owned corporation responsible for generating and selling hydroelectricity in Uttar Pradesh, is exploring the possibility of diversifying its business by setting up a 200 megawatt (MW) solar park at Rihand, officials connected with the matter said.

A solar park is supposed to have multiple solar power plants.

Rihand is a hydro plant situated on the Govind Ballabh Pant reservoir in Sonbhdra district, 165 km from Varanasi.

The corporation is considering various models for setting up the solar park in the dam’s catchment area spread over 5148 square miles.

One option is to set up the solar park in public private (PPP) mode under which the corporation may make the land available to a private partner for a solar plant. The second option is for the corporation to install the plant on its own.

“We have abundant land available at our hydropower projects like Rihand and Panki and we are ready to make required land available to anyone who is willing to set up 200 MW solar park there,” Jal Vidyut Nigam managing director and secretary,

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We have abundant land available at our hydropower projects like Rihand and Panki and we are ready to make required land available to anyone who is willing to set up 200 MW solar park there APARNA UPADHAYAYA, Jal Vidyut Nigam MD and secretary, energy

energy, Aparna Upadhayaya said.

“However, we are yet to decide on the model for the same,” she added.

The Solar Corporation of India Ltd (SECI), a Central government enterprise, had been asked to work out the most suitable model in this regard and prepare the bidding documents accordingly, Upadhayaya said.

The SECI, sources said, had conducted a study at Rihand and Obra more than a year ago suggesting the immense scope for setting up solar plants in the catchment area of the hydro projects. The Jal Vidyut Nigam may float the tenders inviting entrepreneurs to set up solar parks there before the investors’ summit. “The state government wants to sign MoUs for 1000 MW solar power generation in the state at the summit and some tenders for the same have already been floated,” said an official in the government.

The state cabinet in December approved a new solar policy-2017 seeking private investment to achieve the target of generating 10,700 MW solar power by 2022, the year when the new solar policy will expire.

Jal Vidyut Nigam was created as a separate entity after the unbundling of the then UP State Electricity Board in January 2000. It has an installed capacity of only 526 MW comprising eight plants. The corporation was left with little hydropower generation potential after Uttarakhand was carved out as a separate state in November the same year.

That is why at one stage there were plans to merge the Jal Vidyut Nigam with the Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, the thermal power generating entity.

“Setting up solar plants by using the abundant land at hydro projects, under any model, will be good for the Jal Vidyut Nigam as this will also save its huge land in the catchment area from being encroached apart from giving it an opportunity to diversify,” said an engineer of the Rihand project.