Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), out of a total of 159 grid-connected projects with 1,152 mw, 132 projects of 627 mw capacity have been commissioned within their scheduled commissioning date (SCOD), said the Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah in the Rajya Sabha on August 26.    

Installation of only five projects with 32 mw solar PV projects and 6 projects with 420 mw solar thermal projects have been delayed beyond initially specified time limit with payment of penalties.    

In case of Solar PV projects, developers have reported the delays due to mainly to local law and order problem and to delays in construction of transmission lines. In case of the Solar Thermal projects, the main common reason for the delay reported by the developers has been the low direct solar radiation (DNI) levels found by them at the project sites as per actual measurements made after the projects were allotted than those estimated initially, necessitating significant oversizing of solar collectors field and re-engineering of their plants designs.    

In case of the Solar PV Projects, Performance Bank Guarantees given by the developers have been en-cashed and Liquidated Damages have been charged as per initial provisions under Ministry’s Guidelines/ PPAs. It has been decided to accept such projects with payment of additional penalties (in case of projects allotted through NVVN) / reduction in tariff (in case of projects allotted through IREDA).    

In case of the Solar Thermal Projects, the Government has extended the Scheduled Commercial Operation Date (SCOD) of the delayed solar thermal power projects by 10 months from May 2013 to March 2014 to allow the solar thermal power developers to complete their projects without imposition of penalties, the Minister said.