Mumbai: In a major relief to the renewable energy (RE) project promoters, the centre has announced that the projects under implementation will be given extension considering period of lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak and the time required for the remobilisation of its work force.
This is crucial as the government has set an ambitious target of a renewable energy capacity addition of 1.78 lakh mw by 2022 and the projects are under various stages of implementation.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Secretary Anand Kumar in a tweet said, "All renewable energy projects under implementation will be given extension of time considering period of lock down and time required for remobilisation of work force.’’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown across the country for 21 days from Tuesday midnight, asserting that it was "very necessary to break the chain of coronavirus."
The spread of coronavirus has not only disrupted the supply chain of components used in RE projects but has also impacted the availability of workforce. In this context, the announcement of the extension of time will provide great relief to all the stakeholders in the RE sector.
The centre has already decided that all RE implementing agencies of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) were directed to treat delay on the account of disruption of the supply chains due to spread of coronavirus in China or any other country as Force Majeure.
Further, the RE implementing agencies may grant suitable extension of time for projects, on account of coronavirus, based on evidences/documents produced by developers in support of their respective claims of such disruption of the supply chains due to spread of coronavirus in China or any other country.
Moreover, the State Renewable Energy Departments (including agencies under power/ energy departments of states but dealing in renewable energy) were also requested to treat delay on account of disruption of the supply chains.
