In order to address climate change with sustainable infrastructure development, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has invited tenders for installing solar power plants at its different premises like parking lots, railway stations, and CIDCO office buildings, among other locations, based on the power purchase agreement (PPA) model.
A solar PPA is a financial agreement wherein a developer arranges for the design, permitting, financing and installation of a solar energy system on a customer's property at little to no cost.
In November 2021, the planning agency floated a tender to appoint a consultant for preparing a detailed project report on solar power generation on CIDCO properties.
According to senior officials from CIDCO, the report received from the consultant is encouraging and now the planning agency has decided to set up solar power plants on the PPA model. “Since CIDCO does not have technical expertise on setting up solar power, an expert will be hired as per the PPA model,” said a senior CIDCO official.
“To generate solar energy CIDCO has kept two options open, namely gross feeder and net feeder. Space will be made available to interested companies who qualify under the gross feeder scheme. The appointed company will sell the generated power to the grid.
CIDCO will generate electricity by itself
In the net feeder scheme, CIDCO is going to generate electricity itself and use it.
The remaining electricity will be sold to the grid. From this, CIDCO will get revenue, and at the same time, the cost of electricity will also be saved,” said the official. He added that a few companies have already shown interest and the scrutiny will take place after the festive season.
At present, railway stations in Navi Mumbai are maintained by CIDCO and there are also a number of commercial establishments under its ambit. The rooftops of the station premises have a huge potential for solar energy. In addition, CIDCO is developing Metro rail and it has a number of premises like the CIDCO exhibition centre and an auditorium where solar installations are possible.
