One nation, one tariff: Centre's plan to fire up RE

Uniform renewable energy tariffs were originally proposed in October 2023

- Rituraj Baruah

The central government will hold talks with stakeholders to push the adoption of uniform tariffs for renewable energy, two people aware of the development said. Uniform renewable energy tariffs or URETS were first proposed by the Centre in October 2023, but haven't been implemented yet as power is a concurrent subject and would require states to come on board.

The development assumes significance in the backdrop of delays in signing of agreements between power developers, procurement agencies and distribution companies (discoms), which has held back procurement of clean power, especially solar, by discoms even as the installed base has grown.

Currently, about 30 gigawatt (GW) worth of PPAs are lying unsigned, according to the people cited above. This had reached a high of 55GW last November, per a report from JM Financial.

"Discoms have some reservations regarding URETs," said a government official, one of the two people mentioned above, requesting anonymity. "The Centre would hold stakeholder consultations soon to understand what exactly is their apprehension and what kind of changes and clarifications are required. After this, we would see more PPAs (power purchase agreements) being signed."