Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

The objective of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) under the brand ‘Solar India’ is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible. The Mission stipulates the target under the 3 phases (first phase upto 2012-13, second phase from 2013-2017 and third phase from 2017-2022) for various solar application segments including Utility grid solar power.

In order to facilitate solar power generation, a mechanism of bundling solar power with power from the cheaper unallocated quota of NTPC coal based stations and selling this power to Distribution Utilities at the CERC determined price, has been proposed in the JNNSM. In this regard, JNNSM stipulates that NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd. (NVVN) will be designated as a Nodal Agency for entering into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Solar Power Generation Project Developers who will be setting up Solar Projects during the next three years, i.e., before March 2013 and are connected to the grid at voltage level of 33 kV and above. For each MW installed capacity of solar power for which PPA is signed by NVVN, Ministry of Power (MoP) shall allocate to NVVN an equivalent amount of MW capacity from the unallocated quota of NTPC coal based stations and NVVN will supply this bundled power to the Distribution Utilities.