The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has issued the draft version of its tariff determination regulation order. The regulations cover all renewable energy projects commissioned in Maharashtra for the generation and sale of electricity to the distribution companies. According to the draft regulations, the normative capital cost of a rooftop solar project will be considered as Rs 40 million per MW. The MERC has also established operations and maintenance costs for wind projects at Rs 772,000 per MW, Rs 1.5 million per MW for solar thermal projects, and Rs 600,000 per MW for rooftop solar projects. The MERC has set the minimum capacity utilisation factor (CUF) for small hydropower projects at 30 per cent for the purpose of tariff determination. For wind and rooftop solar projects, the CUFs have been set at 22 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively. For solar thermal projects, CUF has been set at 23 per cent.
Earlier in September 2019, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the state of Goa and union territories had issued an order stating the generic tariff applicable to the renewable projects for the financial year 2019-20. According to the order, the net levelised tariff after factoring in accelerated depreciation was Rs 4.61 per kWh for Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Puducherry, and Diu. For Chandigarh the net levelised tariff was set at Rs 4.88 per kWh, whereas the highest levelised tariff was set for Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, where the net levelised tariff was Rs 6.63 per kWh. The order has been in force since September 2, 2019, and will be applicable until March 31, 2020.