The Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC) has established generic levelised tariff for solar energy projects to be set up in areas other than industrial and urban areas. The levelised tariff is set at Rs 3.65 per kWh for projects up to 1 MW. Additionally, the tariff for projects ranging above 1 MW and up to 5 MW has been determined as Rs 3.62 per kWh. Meanwhile, tariff of Rs 3.7 per kWh for projects up to 1 MW and Rs 3.67 per kWh for projects above 1 MW and up to 5 MW has been established for projects to be set up in industrial and urban areas.
The state electricity commission concluded the rates after considering feedback from solar developers within the state. These tariffs are established for solar PV projects for the fiscal year 2023-24 and will be implemented from October 1, 2023, remaining applicable until March 31, 2024.
Considering the input from stakeholders regarding the normative capital cost and addressing various concerns, and recognising that the proposed tariff duration is only six months, the commission has opted to encourage the establishment of smaller-capacity solar PV projects in the state. As a result, the decision has been made to permit a comprehensive escalation of 40 per cent on the basic cost, deviating from the initially proposed 15 per cent. Furthermore, the normative cost of the additional components will be raised to Rs 22.5 million per MW, deviating from the proposed Rs 21.6 million per MW. Moreover, the commission decided to retain capacity utilisation factor of 21 per cent.
